Jet Packs: A thing of the future? Man uses hydrogen and nitrogen-powered jet pack

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a man with a jetpack soaring around the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC.

The demonstration shows a man blasting off inside the Ronald Reagan Building with the help of a hydrogen and nitrogen-powered jetpack. The event, now in its second year, is part of the Smithsonian magazine’s The Future is Here Festival, which explores science, technology, culture and the arts.

And it’s not the first time jetpacks have blasted off. A company in New Zealand, the Martin Aircraft, is currently developing commercially-available jetpacks and came one step closer to its goal last year when it was given civil aviation approval for manned test flights.

“We have over 10,000 people who have actually enquired us to whether they may be able to purchase these in the future.”

But with a starting price tag of around $150,000, jetpacks might not be for everyone.

Difficult words: soar (fly), blast off (take off), blast off (people are very interested).