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Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

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Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#441
post #439

Why didn't the FAA get the cops or military to scramble some jets to apprehend this individual? How is this not a national security threat?? Who knows if they were strapped with IED type device.

This is amazing. Jets can't capture someone with a Jetpack. He will simply land, they work with other planes.

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#442
post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow - so he can - here's a video https://youtu.be/lK75XLUIKUk?t=8

You might like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj-Iwv5NJKg

I did.

www.jetman.com has more infos

But nothing on the actual jetpack, like how the engine works.

But here they actually fly next to a jet. So maybe it was those guys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VPvKl6ezyc&feature=emb_rel_...

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#443
post #403
post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those turbine-powered models aren't carrying 100+ kg of payload?

These rc model turbines pull 20+ kg thrust. In the video he uses turbines noticeably larger, in 50-60kg class. Granted such small turbines have low efficiency - low compression - so they burn 0.2kg fuel per 10 kg thrust per minute. Thus 4kg per minute for 200kg total weight of which fuel is 60kg at best, thus 15 minutes hover at best. Once it becomes more popular we'll get turbofans, and that will improve the efficie…

How heavy of a battery would you need to power these with enough electricity to lift an adult human, think like a drone on steroids...

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#444
post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From another viewpoint: people fly turbine-powered model aircraft all the time. Why wouldn't you believe it?

Well for one, where is the fuel? Seems like it would take a tremendous amount of fuel and there are no visible fuel tanks on the jetpack.

Inside the wing is logical, it's pretty thick and planes have it there as well.

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glassdoor says they earn $30k - $64k yet lots of us earn more in our comfy office jobs typing code into a text editor, kinda puts things into perspective.

It's amazing how much leverage an employer has when they have the legal right to simply fire everyone, and there is no recourse for the employees because the employer is the federal government itself. https://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/05/reagan-fires-11-00...

For people who won't click, here are some salient facts:

this air traffic controller strike occurred in 1981

In 1955, Congress had made such strikes punishable by fines or a one-year jail term

a law the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in 1971

You don't like it? Then don't take the job. Take a job where you do have the ability to go out on strike.

When you simply cater to union-protected municipal employees, you wind up with the following, discussed on HN twice in the last day:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24350022

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24342828

We found truck drivers loaded up with $262,898; city painters making $270,190; firefighters earning $316,306; and plumbing supervisors cleaning up $348,291 every year. One deputy sheriff earned $574,595 last year – including $315,896 in overtime

All paid for by tax dollars.

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#446
post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a friend of mine's site. If you live near an airport and have a good internet connection volunteer to provide a live feed.

I live close to LAX. I'll send them a message.

I bet there is plenty of coverage there for LAX already. In my impression, services like this (and even Flightradar24) at this day and age are mostly interested in coverage in spotty areas in rural areas and far away from civilization.

Don't get me wrong! I'm not trying to demotivate you. Just letting you know that maybe they'll turn you down. However, even if they do so, you can always learn a lot by doing so... and it's quite cheap, and redundancy is always welcome, right? :)

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#447
post #439

Why didn't the FAA get the cops or military to scramble some jets to apprehend this individual? How is this not a national security threat?? Who knows if they were strapped with IED type device.

If you want to get a flying IED, you can use a commercially available RC plane. Nobody with the means to build a working jetpack would use it to do something so pedestrian as a suicide bombing.

The FAA should still have a stern talking to the guy, of course, if he flew in the path of airplanes.

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdote time: I was in a train that hit a bunch of concrete slabs at medium speed (60 km/h?) and all I noticed was that it rapidly stopped. But that was a relatively undetermined attack. What if someone welds something directly on to the rails or cuts something out? It may get noticed in tens of minutes, but is that really fast enough? Similarly it seems like it wouldn't be insanely hard to poison water supplies, do…

Cutting out the rail is unlikely to cause huge damage, and welding something directly to the rail would take quite some time and be noticeable. Just putting a few sensors every few meters and networking them then stopping the train would work. But I am also surprised how well it works. I think people just don't suck as much as one would expect.

> A few sensors every few meters.

The US has a total length of about 300 000km of railway network and that probably counts multi-track connections once. And it doesn’t include subway or anything. So that would be a lot of sensors that need to be placed and maintained. And you’d need to except some failure of sensors, so you cannot just stop if a single sensor goes haywire.

It’s certainly not impossible, but also not trivially done.

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#449
post #443
post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These rc model turbines pull 20+ kg thrust. In the video he uses turbines noticeably larger, in 50-60kg class. Granted such small turbines have low efficiency - low compression - so they burn 0.2kg fuel per 10 kg thrust per minute. Thus 4kg per minute for 200kg total weight of which fuel is 60kg at best, thus 15 minutes hover at best. Once it becomes more popular we'll get turbofans, and that will improve the efficie…

How heavy of a battery would you need to power these with enough electricity to lift an adult human, think like a drone on steroids...

Lift for how long?

https://www.tmotoruavdrone.com/product-detail/48968207323300...

Looks like the motor you need. 25KW

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#450
post #17

ATCs have a reputation for never losing their cool and that really shines through here: “Tower, there’s a guy in a jetpack flying outside.” “Copy. To your left or your right?”

I listened to the audio book of “The Only Plane in the Sky” (do recommend), and they played real recordings of ATCs on 9/11 as the planes were hitting buildings. It was surreal listening to them talk about the catastrophe but all while maintaining a total sense of calm.

While reading through the comments here, I found this link yesterday. Took me down a rabbit hole. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYBhgEm3j7A
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