from Hacker News

Jetpacks and the enigma of solo flight. Why does no one seem to care?

by unklefolk on 1/22/22, 4:31 PM with 1 comments

  • by aurizon on 1/22/22, 5:13 PM

    I feel no desire to fly a jetpack, ultralight of hand glider. The jetpacks have zero lift(except the powered wing suits). I read about frequent accidents/injuries/deaths involving them = few will clamor to do it. It is a solitary game. Ultralights also have higher death rates than I like - interest fell off greatly after John Denver died from a design flaw that prevented him switching to his reserve tank = crashed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Denver#Death

    Hang gliders also seem to be a good way to ruin a vacation - lower deaths, but lots of injuries. People are risk-averse for the most part, and need a strong social reward for engaging in that sport - there is zero social reward + lots of risk in all these machines.