Yves Rossy has been working on his jet-powered wingsuit for a while, and after having added a carbon-fiber wing, with four miniature jet engines, he was able to join some jet aircrafts to fly in formation for a demonstration over the Swiss Alps.

Granted, the jets are flying just above stall speed, and the jetpack is going at full throttle (between 120 and 180 mph), but it’s still cool.

I can only imagine it’s a flaming death trap waiting to kill anyone that sits on it. I can also imagine it will cook your legs all the way through before it blows up and kills you. The special bike was created by Robert Maddox with the goal of hitting 200mph.

I can’t imagine going on a motorcycle at 200mph, much less on a bike with a pair of jet engines under your butt. Still, death on wheels never looked so cool. This is one serious cool bit of kit and it just sold to one lucky buyer on eBay for a whopping $25,000 (USD).

[via Autoblog & The Kneeslider via Bornrich]

A concept design by Peter Fletcher, the Turbine LED watch would tell the current time using a spinning turbine-like blade, with flashing LEDs on one of the blades. As the blades spin rapidly, the time would be revealed.

When I first saw this idea, I thought that building a motor into a watch to spin the turbine would eat up battery like mad. However, Peter’s concept incorporates a clever mechanical “pull cord” on the side of the watch, which provides its spinning energy instead of a motor.

At this point, the Turbine watch is only a concept, but if it manages to get enough votes over on the TokyoFlash design blog, it might someday become a real watch.

[Thanks for the tip, Peter!]

I do still have a great appreciation for the replica of that winged Batmobile that you see here. Not only does it look like the real Batmobile from the flick, but the car is actually powered by a turbine! In fact, the owner claims that it is the world’s only replica to be powered by a turbine. Watch it in action below, and just listen to that sound!

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The car’s owner is Casey Putsch, who owns Putsch Racing. He constructed the car and made it look just like the one Keaton drove in the flick from 1989. The car is massive at 20-feet long and 7-feet 5-inches long.

Look closely at the interior and you will note an iPad there for some of the gauges. The car even has IR and visible light cameras along with a fire suppression system. I would love to know how fast the car can go.

[via Autoblog via Bornrich]

The plane is supposed to be twice as fast as the Concorde, but the commercial version isn’t expected to be finished until 2025, so that’s a letdown. With a top speed of 2,664mph, that’s Mach 3.6, it will fly at 62,000 ft allowing passengers to see the curvature of the Earth. Expected travel times are about 2 hours to get from New York to London or 5 hours to get from New York to Sydney. That’s 25% of the time it usually takes via commercial airliners.

This is still future tech, because HyperMach’s S-MAGJET plasma fuel engines needed to power this aren’t yet in existence, but should be completely by 2020.  Then it will take another 5 years to get this jet built.

HyperMach plans to fly their first test flight sometime in 2021. That’s a long time, and I’m sure that between now and then, other companies will be working on their own their speed-defying jets.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

[via Daily Mail]

A British team has recorded a test session on video so the curious sort like me can see just how it is done. If you were expecting a steely-nerved pilot strapping in and punching out while flying at mach 1, sadly, that’s not how it is done.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The reality is almost that cool though. They use a frackin’ rocket sled. The sled hurtles down some railroad tracks and a dummy strapped in the seat is ejected into the sky. I guess if the dummy has all its appendages after the test and things work OK, the seat is approved. We never get to see the dummy land in the video, so we don’t get to see how well the he or the seat did when they landed.

[via Boing Boing]

This wasn’t a toy or a model mind you, but a real Harrier that last flew with the RAF in 1997. The kid hit the “Buy it Now” button on the $113,000 purchase and then the bad things happened. His dad found out he bought the jet and canceled the sale.  Apparently, Will Smith was right, parents just don’t understand.

The upside is that the seller cancelled without giving the man a hard time, and says that the boy actually helped them because the story brought more attention to the sale. The harrier can no longer fly, and according to some would take millions of pounds to return to flight capable.

[via MyFoxChicago]

It has all sorts of home theater gear hooked to it that might make your TV in the living room jealous. The screen has multiple Blu-ray players connected and gets satellite TV. I wonder how the satellite is able to keep a signal locked, moving as fast as a jet can go.

Other cool features of the jet include a cabin lighting system, attendant call functions, and iPod docking stations. An extra 20-inch screen and a 10.2-inch personal screen are also inside the jet. There is no word on how much the jet cost, but I’m guessing the thing was not cheap.

[via Born Rich]

The Martin Aircraft Company jetpacks have about 200 HP coming out of their dual propellers. They can go up to 1.5 miles in the air and reach speeds of 60 mph. They will aim to make about 500 packs a year.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

These jetpacks were invented by Glenn Martin, who unveiled his prototype last year in July. This whole contraption weighs less than 254 lbs, so in the UK, you won’t need a pilot’s license to travel in it. It is capable of traveling 30 miles with a full tank of fuel.

The jetpacks will be made in New Zealand, and the company says that these packs would be perfect for emergency services, as well private users and the military. (And killing yourself – ed.)

[via Good]

The madmen over at MotoArt have taken the engine nacell from a decommissioned 747 jet engine and turned it curvy metal headboard. The bed has an 84″ diameter round mattress and boxspring that set perfectly inside the bifurcated engine jacket. And to make sure you don’t slice your head open on the aluminum edge, they’ve thoughtfully cover the sharp metal edges with some Plexiglas. For each bed, MotoArt cleans up the engine cowl’s paintjob and carefully polishes each one to a shiny mirror finish so you can look at yourself first thing in the morning.

Engine not included.

The guys over at Motoart took this seat from an authentic Vietnam-era F-4 fighter jet, and turned it into a cushy, padded desk chair. The seat has been upgraded with a sturdy aluminum base, durable double-wheel casters and upholstered with clean new fabric. Plus, those armrest look like they could be a little uncomfortable.

Are you a bomber, not a fighter? Do you just need a little extra upper-back support? Then you might like this disproportionately tall B-52 ejector seat instead:

Of course, the big flaw in the design of these things is the fact that they’re meant to be desk chairs. Really, why would you need to eject yourself from your own workspace? I’d much rather have a pair of visitors’ chairs that I could use to eject annoying co-workers from my office. I could use that today – and yesterday – and tomorrow.

To check out the complete collection of these airplane office seating and other cool furniture crafted from antique aviation parts, fly on over to Motoart.

[via MadeMan]

With up to 215 horsepower, the JetLev jetpack flings you up to 28 feet in the air at up to 40MPH by pumping water through its jets.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

I think I’m gonna stick to my innertube for now.

If the design looks kind of familiar, that’s because it’s part of the designer’s Jet series that brought us these really cool alarm clocks and clock radios. And if the gold model [€21 EUR / $32 US] isn’t your thing, there’s also a beautiful anodized aluminum version available for a few bucks less [€19 EUR / $29 US].

So if you’re looking for a cool desk accessory, and you’re not married to the calculator built into your PC, you can find these over at French design retailer Singulier.

The AquaRain is a battery-powered device that floats along the surface of your bathwater and sprays a geyser of constantly recirculating water into the air in a couple of different patterns. Add to that a set of three color-changing LEDs, and you’ve got yourself a serious light show in your tub.

While it might not come close to the fountains at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, it’s should offer enough of a display for most bathtubs. The AquaRain is available now from NCSX for $39.

The TAM Rocket Belt is a complete rocket pack system which is custom fitted to the exact specifications of the pilot. It can lift a person of up to 300lbs., and has flown to heights over 100 feet in the air. It even includes the equipment necessary to make your own rocket fuel (using highly pressurized peroxide, so it’s not combustible.) They even throw in 10 training flights to make sure you don’t kill yourself before you take it home.

The only downside is that it only holds enough fuel to propel you into the air for about 10 to 15 seconds, so you won’t be going very far.

[via Geekologie]