On Wednesday, the second of two recent, unconfirmed jetpack sightings occurred in the skies above Los Angeles.
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Details of the sightings so far are scant — on Aug. 30, pilots from two different airlines saw what one American Airlines employee described as a “guy in a jetpack.” This week's sighting was apparently seen by a crew on a China Airlines flight.
Federal authorities are investigating the sightings, but David Mayman, chief executive of the Los Angeles-based Jetpack Aviation, said Thursday that he doesn’t believe what the pilots and crew members are seeing are indeed jetpacks.
“There are only a handful of companies working on this type of technology, and none of us have heard about anybody doing something like this,” he said.
“The question is,” he added, “why the heck would you go fly around LAX? You need to have your head read. That’s a catastrophic accident waiting to happen.”
Mayman’s company, which was established in 2016, has produced five jetpacks, he said, noting that all of them are under "lock and key." Only two people have those keys — Mayman and his chief engineer — and none of the packs have been sold, he said.
For liability reasons, he said the company instead offers two-day sessions where — for $4,950 — trainees can travel to the company’s San Fernando Valley-based facility and learn to fly with the jetpacks.
Mayman said it was extremely unlikely that the company’s latest machines could reach the heights described by the airline crew and pilots while also safely descending.
The August sighting was at 3,000 feet; Wednesday's was at 6,000 feet.
It would take one of the company’s turbine-powered jetpacks as long as seven minutes to reach 6,000 feet, Mayman said. The company’s latest model holds 12 gallons of fuel — or about 10 minutes’ worth.