British Inventor Has Made An “Iron Man” Flight Suit, It’s On Sale Now

Ever wanted to take to the skies like the fictional Iron Man, equipped with personal jet engines that would allow you to easily leave the ground behind? For a small investment of $450,000, that dream can now be a reality.

The inventor, Richard Browning, recently set a world record for fastest ground speed in a body-controlled jet engine power suit’, at Lagoona Park in Reading, England, Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017. The speed record was for reaching a total of 32 mph, and while that’s nowhere near the full jet-speed of the Iron Man armors, it’s also a lot faster than the average person could go by foot.

Browning is the founder and chief pilot of invention and technology company Gravity Industries, and he emphasizes that while this suit can certainly go quite fast, one should exercise great caution during acceleration: The device has no steering system, and is controlled entirely via human body movements. Browning had to achieve great core strength, balance and control in order to be able to accelerate and decelerate the suit without losing balance.

So what’s in the suit itself? A few honest-to-goodness jet engines – five total. The engines are mounted on the back and arms of the pilot, and allow them full control of their motion and direction. Browning has already taken the suit to multiple events, including a TED conference in Vancouver and a few local shows. The suit is also planned to make an appearance at this year’s San Diego Comic Con.

Maximum height is quite limited, as with many other flight suits. This is for a number of reasons: First, when giving someone a technology that has them strapping jet engines to their arms, you’ll want to do everything possible to ensure that small mistakes don’t result in instant death. Second, the engines that power the suit just aren’t powerful enough to push a full-sized adult human far enough off the ground to make them soar like a bird. Theoretically, the engines could be simply powered up, but this also creates a host of orther problems, such as a hugely increased amount of heat produced by the flames that might burn wearers, increased fuel consumption, increased bracing to ensure the force of the engine doesn’t push upon and damage a user’s hands or arms, etc.

Mr. Browning, however, has high hopes for the future of the technology. According to an interview with the inventor on DailyMail, he believes science is just on the cusp of being able to provide flight technology individuals, and he’s glad that he has the chance to be the first company to make that dream a reality. He also sounded confident that future versions of his suit  would be able to propel users to hundreds of feet off the ground, and allot them to fly at hundreds of miles per hour, though he admits that those who commit to these kinds of stunts have to understand the extreme dangers that they are putting themselves through.

If you’ve got some time for professional flight safety training as well as half a million dollars lying around, consider yourself lucky: You’ve got the brand-new opportunity to become one of the first wealthy humanoid Iron Mans (Iron Men?) to take flight around the streets. Though, all things considered, this suit is probably a little less full-Iron-Man and a little more Tony Stark in this scene.

Featured Image Via Flickr / marvelousRonald