Jet Pack Para Medics in Cumbria

[STEVIEBOY1]

I just heard about the testing of Jet Packs for the Para Medics in Cumbria / Lake District. Just saw a short news clip about this. It is very James Bond, but hopefully will work and will be useful.

Does anyone know how these are powered. (and as it is my birthday, can I have one, they look very exciting.)

 

[Gloster]

This is the sort of thing that we thought the future would bring when I was small in the 1960s, although then they said it would be much sooner: “By the 1980s we will...”.

 

[Shimbleshanks]

Looks like the creators of this expensive and dangerous 'solution' are desperately looking for a problem that it can solve. If the medic in the jet pack crashes and breaks every bone in their body on a remote mountainside, what happens then? Send someone else out in another jetpack to attend to them?

 

[Trackman]

Is it like the jet pack that Frenchman used to cross the channel?
Seems a lot of faff to me if someone needs assistance urgently, if it's remote a helicopter would still be the quickest and easiest option.

 

[Gloster]

It might be of use to rapidly get one paramedic to the casualty if they are stuck somewhere inaccessible on a mountain. Whether this would offset the need to carry the equipment around all the time, and therefore leave out other stuff, is another question.

The jet pack in Thunderball only had an endurance of a couple of minutes, after which it would fall out of the the sky.

 

[najaB]

Looks like the creators of this expensive and dangerous 'solution' are desperately looking for a problem that it can solve.

Pretty much, yes. He's been trying to sell the system to the military as well. Though, to be fair, it's not really that difficult to use or dangerous.

 

[Meerkat]

Judging from the pictures the pilot wasn’t wearing walking boots, nor full weather gear, and all he was carrying was two small packs attached to the front of his thighs.
So basically not a lot of medical kit for an alleged critical patient, and not much to keep themselves safe and alive on the mountain.
Flying it in the interesting wind conditions of the mountains will be interesting too.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

How long would it take to kit up compared to the time spent walking to any casualty?

It's no good flying there in 2 minutes with limited equipment instead of a 30 minute walk with full equipment if it's going to take about 20 minutes to be ready to go.

 

[High Dyke]

Would these be subject to similar guidelines of use, like a drone; or do they come more into the category of a light aircraft?

 

[py_megapixel]

Here is the video, if you're interested:

 

[Meerkat]

I assume they will have a fancy augmented VR headset for navigation and casualty location......can‘t really reach in a pocket for the map......