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Photos: The jet pack blasts off
The commute just got easier

By Nick Heath

Published: Friday 01 August 2008

Man's obsession with strapping a rocket to his back and blasting into the atmosphere stretches back to the 1960's sci-fi of The Jetsons and Lost in Space.

Forty years later a New Zealand inventor Glenn Martin shot skyward using a 200HP water-cooled piston engine running on petrol.

Martin hovered off the ground, pictured, and showed off his aeronautical skills to rapturous applause at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2008, one of the world's biggest air shows in Wisconsin in the US.

Photo credit: EAA