I am grateful to someone named John, who posted interesting news to sci.space.history. Good old archive.org has dredged up a scan of A4 Fibel, the A-4 (V-2) missile operating manual, decorated with cartoons and poems to keep the German Army rocketeers entertained.
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Using a jet engine, rather than a rocket, is one solution to extending the range of rocket-belt-like devices. Bell Aerosystems and Williams collaborated on a Bell Jet Belt, but it hasn't flown for nearly four decades. Modern cruise missiles descended from the compact engine Williams developed ( Read more... )

Mac Montandon's new book Jetpack Dreams has just been published. I met Mac at the Rocketbelt Convention in 2006, and since then we have corresponded occasionally. He set out to chronicle the past and future of the jetpack, and emotions about the jetpack.

It's being promoted very effectively, having been reviewed by Wall Street Journal, Time, and ( Read more... )

In a new article on the Scientific American site, Larry Greenemeier considers the future of rocket belts and jet belts.

I strongly recommend that you examine the accompanying slideshow. Really.

You may recall that I attended the Rocketbelt Convention last year, had a wonderful time, met old rocket belt hands and new inventors, and (twice) watched GoFast rocket belt flights.

On 11 and 12 August-- the weekend after next-- a second Rocketbelt Convention will be held in Niagara Falls, New York. It will be part of the Thunder of Niagara ( Read more... )

I hear the Rose Bowl had a rocket belt flight the other day.

In the U.S. Wired Science debuts this week on PBS stations, Wednesday night in some markets.

The pilot episode (available online) features rocket belt experimenters they interviewed at the Rocketbelt Convention I attended in September. It's a good piece, and incorporates nice ( Read more... )

Every night of the rocket belt conference, I worked to put a selection of photos on the Web and to write a little bit about them.

Last night Make magazine asked permission to post my photos to their blog.

New Scientist has linked to my Flickr photo collection.

Yesterday I wrote a posting for sci.space.history on Usenet. The Make editor liked ( Read more... )

By popular demand, Harold Graham performing "My Rocketbelt Daze" on the baritone ukulele. Video by John B. Carnett, who was covering the conference for Popular Science.

(Thanks to whl, streettech.com, and smithmag.net for pointers.)

My Rocket Belt Daze
by Harold Graham
Copyright 2006 by Harold Graham

I am getting old and feeble now
and I cannot ( Read more... )

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