Cash Blast Will Fuel Jet Packs

We were supposed to have jet packs by now - just like Elroy Jetson. James Bond flew one in “Thunderball.” The Robinson family buzzed distant worlds in a “Lost in Space” jet pack.

So where’s our jet pack?

Houston, of all places.

The rocket belt, originally designed by Bell Aerosystems in the early ‘60s, is flying again. Now ready to be manufactured by a company called American Flying Belt, the device made its public debut in this month’s Popular Mechanics magazine. Since then, the company’s phones have been buzzing with would-be fliers.

“Every person seems to know exactly where they were when they first saw one of these things. I was 9 years old, watching ‘Thunderball,”’ said Brad Barker, president of the company.

Like the Bell machine, the belt works like this: Hydrogen peroxide moves across a catalyst, breaking it into a rush of steam and oxygen. Flights last 28 seconds.

The down side: “You have 1,000 horsepower parked right behind your head. The gases exit at about Mach 3,” Barker said. “This thing makes as much noise as a 747 taking off the runway.”

The company spent $400,000 on the prototype. And while the specs are on floppy disk, ready to be plugged into a computerized lathe, the company isn’t producing belts - yet.

Barker won’t even guess at a price. But here’s his idea of a typical buyer: “We have sent information kits to Michael Jackson.”

Since the device is classified as an experimental flying craft, you don’t need a license to blast off. All you need is a lot of money, some fuel and a big crash helmet, just in case.

For dreamers on a tighter budget, the company sells a information kit on the belt for $25, complete with technical data and photographs. Write to American Flying Belt, 403 NASA Road 1 East, Suite 381, Houston, TX 77598.”Every kid in the world just drools over this. But it takes up so much of my time that my boy Hunter just hates it.”