How I built a jet suit

Michael Browning: engineer,

innovator --

inventor, really --

and inspiring father.

He had a passion for flight,
as you can kind of sense

from that rather dubious
1970s office-leaving present.

And some 40 years after that was created,

a small group of us got together

to have a go,

a run at the whole challenge of flight
that inspired people for years,

and do it in a very different kind of way.

And that's the journey I'd like
to share with you now.

The starting hypothesis was one
of the human mind and body,

which, as you've seen
for the last few days here,

is an amazing construct.

What if you augmented
that wonderful machine

with just the right technology?

If you approach flight
in that kind of real way,

where could you get to?

So my training partner here
back in London, Denton,

is doing a much better job
of that kind of stuff than me.

Guess what? It's London.

The idea was that you augment that.

And so, how do you augment that?

Well, we bought one of these.

This is a micro gas turbine.

This was ground zero,

so that little piece of kit
proved really quite impressive,

so we got two in a field.

The real hero here, by the way,
is, right in the background,

there's a lady tending some vegetables,

who does a brilliant job
of trying to ignore us for a while --

(Laughter)

I think the only thing
less happy is the grass,

that we did probably damage quite badly.

You get an idea of the thrust here,

when I try to hold them horizontally
and somewhat fail.

That's around 50 kilos of thrust there.

We were quite impressed with that.

We thought we were getting somewhere.

So there's only one sensible way
to go from there:

you get four.

(Laughter)

I have to say, I still like
watching these back.

So then we thought well, let's try
and spread the load a bit.

The legs are designed to take the load,

so why don't we spread it out a bit?

That bit was good.

The harness --

a nice idea but it didn't really work,

as you'll see now.

This whole journey was very much
about trying things --

(Laughter)

Yeah, it really didn't work, did it?

Trying things and learning
by failing at them most of the time.

And that included failing by falling over.

If you notice, we've got
five engines here --

not to be put off by the fact
one was in maintenance,

still had a go.

(Laughter)

And then I pinched a fuel line.

So again, good learning.
We learned not to do that again.

This was a blind alley.

(Laughter)

This was three on each arm --

that was ridiculous.

That was 70 kilos on each arm.

Again, struck that one off.

(Laughter)

But we were starting to make
some really quite convincing progress,

just enough to make you
believe that maybe --

maybe we could get there.

You can see, look -- tantalizing.

The model of one on each leg
and two on each arm,

on paper, that was enough thrust.

And then we did what
I'm about to show you now,

and I still love watching this one.

This was our first six-second,
reasonably coherent flight.

(Applause)

That was the point where
this endeavor went from:

"I'm really not sure
this is going to work,"

to: "Oh my god, it does work!"

From there on we then refined it,

but we carried on falling over a lot.

Falling over, like I say, is definitely
the best way to learn.

After a while, we starting
really refining the layout of all of this.

And you'll see,
that's stability and control --

there's no wires there or anything --

that's a combination of us
refining the technology,

including with a Tupperware box
on the back for the electronics

and actually learning
the balance and control.

I'm now going to save your ears
for the next short piece

and talk over it.

After a while, the jet engine
noise is a bit annoying.

This is only a few weeks ago.

You can see the stability and control
is really quite nice,

and I'd like to think this somewhat
validates that starting hypothesis,

that the human mind and body,
if properly augmented in that way,

can achieve some pretty cool stuff.

I mean, like I said:

I'm not thinking about where
I'm moving my arms at that stage.

I'm looking at the objective
of where I want to get to,

and a bit like riding a bike,

my arms are just doing their thing.

It's a very strange experience.

So where is all this headed?

I'll talk over this landing --

I think I land in this one.

Well, I don't think anybody's going
to go down to Walmart

or take the kids to school
in any of this stuff for a while,

but the team at Gravity are building
some awesome technology

that's going to make
this look like child's play.

We're working on some things

that will seek to bring
this unusual experience of flight

to a wider audience, beyond the events
and displays we're doing.

We're even starting to look
for pilots two and three,

if there's any volunteers.

I've got this vision.

It sounds audacious,
but let's just stick it out there,

that one day maybe we can
rise up above a beach,

fly up and down the coastline
of it, rise up a bit higher,

with some of the safety kit
we're working on to make this achievable.

Then over the horizon comes
a Hercules with the ramp down.

As it comes past,
you start picking up speed

and see if we can intercept --

from the rear, not the front,
that would be a mistake --

and then try and land in the back.

And as I say, that's a little
way off at the moment.

But this is also, if I take
a big step back from this,

this is also a very
personal journey for me.

Back to that lovely photo,

or photo in a picture.

Sadly, my father took
his own life when I was 15,

and left an awful lot
of unfulfilled ambition.

He was a wonderful inventor,

a maverick creator.

And I'd just like to think,
if it was possible,

if he was looking down,

he would be --

he'd certainly be smiling at some
of the things we've done here,

I think.

So, it's a tribute to him.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)

(Voice-over) Richard Browning:
I'm probably more nervous

about doing the demo after this.

I've got a lot of things
to get done today.

Worst-case scenario,
we don't get a clean start.

Or we get an unplanned failure
while I'm actually flying around.

This is why we keep it very low,

so the worst is I just look like an idiot
and fall on my rear, as I said.

So you can all enjoy that if that happens.

(Music)

(Jet engine accelerates)

(Cheers)