Dreams of Flight

On this, the 50th anniversary of NASA, The New York Times has a cover story this morning about that jetpack I mentioned last week debuting at AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI today. Like most jetpacks, this one is severely lacking and severely expensive. Says the inventor,

“If someone says, ‘I’m not going to buy a jetpack until it’s the size of my high school backpack and has a turbine engine in it,’ that’s fine,” he said. “ But they’re not going to be flying a jetpack in their lifetime.”

I guess the inventor has been reading this blog, because I've basically said just that. Color me skeptical and unimpressed, but at $100,000 (and no one has gotten more than five feet off the ground so far) I'm thinkin'.....zzzzzzzzzzz.

Anyway, as I've said before, the jetpack is a symbol, a metaphor, a....something. I'm not really looking for a jetpack. It'd be nice, but the point is broader.