I love things that fly; that should come as no surprise to anyone visiting this particular neck of the Internet woods. If you read the FSInsider newsletter, you'll have seen in our July issue that I'm an aviation movie collector, and if you read my blog, you'll see that I have a soft spot for the "future as it used to be." With all that established, I was especially intrigued to have seen a video clip on the AirVenture website that included a clip from one of my favorite films, The Rocketeer.
The clip is called The Flying Man? and the most exciting thing about it is what you don't see: a new commercially available personal jetpack with a 30 minute flying time (a nice improvement over the 25-35 seconds or so attainable with current models) which will be unveiled at AirVenture on Tuesday morning, July 29th. You can bet I'll be there, taking pictures and then impatiently emailing the good people at Things To Come with helpful messages like "Have you updated your fantastic JetPakNG add-on for FSX yet? How about now?" Click the images below to watch The Flying Man? and its companion video, Jetpack World Premiere Preview:
A much older but equally unusual aircraft that is also slated to fly at AirVenture is Jack and Kate Tiffany's beautifully restored 1932 Pitcairn PA-18 Autogiro. Looking like a cross between a Fleet biplane and a helicopter, the Pitcairn and Cierva autogiros of the 30's were wonderful innovations that eventually gave birth to and were eclipsed by the
modern helicopter. The overall design idea—combining forward thrust and an unpowered rotor - saw a resurgence in the 1960's with the Bensen gyrocopters and the Wallis Meteorite, made famous onscreen as James Bond's "Little Nellie" in the film You Only Live Twice. Gyros, to sloppily lump them all together, have been right on the cusp of a second renaissance for the past decade or so, thanks to companies like Carter Copter, Groen Brothers Aviation, and the Butterfly LLC, makers of another retro-futurist dream, a flying motorcycle!
All of them owe something to Harold Pitcairn and his designs - the chance to see this PA-18, one of only two original Pitcairn autogiros that are known to be flyable, simply can't be missed—I can't wait! Click on the picture for details.