Pilots report JetPack flyer......

Leifer

Senior Member.
Pilots report JetPack flyer...... (9/02/20)

There appears to be some reports of a privately powered JetPack within the approach area of LAX.(airport, Los Angeles)
I'm interested in any followups
or newer information.
pilots reported a novel sighting at 3,000 feet approaching Los Angeles International Airport: a man flying a jetpack.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/01/us/american-airlines-jet-pack-LAX.html



Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8yqx419LIo&fbclid=IwAR0NLYNSfkNbD_MFQIm5rvgwG1Tp3FIXMWF3NH03e-n-7cuH50tzxWhHVeU
 
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One theory is an mannequin drone - https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...los-angeles-looked-just-like-this-crazy-drone

The only problem I see with this theory, is the video I've seen of Jetpack Guy seems to show his knees bending. As if he's raising his legs up to his torso a little, perhaps for comfort, or balance.


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnLW5SHzMNs


I guess what's interesting to me is that he can take off and land without detection. I would guess that the thrust or prop noise from a propulsion system that could lift a human being and carry him 3000 feet in the air for minutes or longer would be fairly loud. Loud enough that you'd need some pretty wide-open unpopulated spaces in that general vicinity to takeoff and land safely and without detection
 
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Is it just me, or does the object in the video above really look like a Mylar balloon to anybody else? I'm particularly looking at about 26 seconds in.

Offered in the full understanding that "to me it looks like..." is not evidence of much.
 
It looks human shaped to me. At 0:26 though it does give off a reflection that appears, and still frames are pretty fuzzy.

If it's really a manned craft, there's more than one person involved. And unless jetpack guy is taking off and landing in the same spot, he must have assistance on the ground to land and get away safety.

It seems that 2000-3000 feet is around the minimum altitude to safely deploy a parachute. Which would explain JetPack guy's altitude. Or even if it's unmanned, it'd still be an expensive crash. Failsafe to deploy parachute.
 
Jetpack is back again yesterday. This one is at 5,000 feet, isn't that too high for a jetpack or drone? I'm fying out of LAX today and will keep my eyes open.
https://abc7.com/jetpack-los-angeles-lax-man-la/10915846/

There is an astrophotography technique called stacking where you stack frames because each image has a different atmospheric issue but when stacked, the average of all the frames is superior to any individual frame showing detail previously hidden. I wonder if that can be done on the video above to help identify what it might be.
 
Jetpack is back again yesterday. This one is at 5,000 feet, isn't that too high for a jetpack or drone? I'm fying out of LAX today and will keep my eyes open.
https://abc7.com/jetpack-los-angeles-lax-man-la/10915846/

There is an astrophotography technique called stacking where you stack frames because each image has a different atmospheric issue but when stacked, the average of all the frames is superior to any individual frame showing detail previously hidden. I wonder if that can be done on the video above to help identify what it might be.
AutoStakkert is the one I use.
Not very user friendly, but many videos on youtube showing how it works.
It's free on their website.

I think you'd need to edit the video to center/stabilize the jetpack pilot first, or the software would get confused by all the motion.
 
I'm not suggesting this is what it is, first off. I do however like to imagine the things that do exist to compare what I am seeing to, and nothing I'm seeing looks out of the realms of the believable. The only thing I find hard to believe is a machine capable of lifting a human's weight that high, that far, that long.



Things like this exist. The man has spent the last 7 years flying human shaped objects and posting videos online about it, and in the one I posted here he mentions how his son wants him to throw it off a national monument or something for the exposure, but he really believes national exposure would "kill the project".

(You can buy the plans for your own here.)

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Screenshot 2021-07-29 18.36.10.png

Semi-inflatables exist too. Maneuverable and long duration in flight, I can envision something like this also being what I'm looking at, a powered helium filled man-shaped RC craft.



Screenshot 2021-07-29 18.38.57.png

Screenshot 2021-07-29 18.38.49.png

It also helps to see something like this, to understand the control available to these airborne devices, a "magic sphere" that picks a water bottle up on one side of the room, floats over and deposits it in someones' hand. So things that float that can be controlled by humans exist, and it need not be a human being we see in these videos. Hence, the "drone" speculation by some. Drone is a catch-all term unfortunately now-a-days, as we've seen. Anything from planets to helicopters to Chinese lanterns are "drones" in today's terms.



Screenshot 2021-07-29 18.50.41.png
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My best guess about this is a high-school kid flying a long range Dragonlink radio controlled hobby project for the poops and titters.
 
Pilots report JetPack flyer...... (9/02/20)

There appears to be some reports of a privately powered JetPack within the approach area of LAX.(airport, Los Angeles)
I'm interested in any followups
or newer information.

Yves Rossy, a Swiss military-trained pilot, has been doing jetpack flying for years and developing the technology further.


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czy0pXRRZcs

A younger guy, Vincent Reffet (a French base-jumper), came under his tutelage in Dubai. They trained together using Jetman Dubai jet-powered wingsuits. Reffet unfortunately died last year during training in the desert. Goes to show how dangerous the "hobby" is. RIP Vincent.
 
The need for some sort of pubic education program "How to Recognize a Mylar Party Balloon" is becoming more apparent every day.
 
Redditors compiled a bunch of videos displaying eerily similar looking objects flying around:

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/p5hj9q/object_being_sighted_worldwide_meta/
The post from reddit begins with a claim. In this case, it says "exact same thing". I beg to differ, I see apart from them floating , in size and colour, i see no match. I am also not surprised a largish helium balloon could look like a dangling bag (large at top, the helium container), as the heavier part of it will sag down, drifting away..
I disqualify the always recurring argument "it was going against the wind". Totally unconfirmed.
 
I disqualify the always recurring argument "it was going against the wind". Totally unconfirmed.
Plus the wind at different altitudes often is heading in different directions, I've seen enough kites at 150' going one way and at 300' going the other to confirm that -- next time I see it I'll grab some pics or a vid. Heck, I've seen banners along the edge of the field blowing in opposite directions at ground level.
 
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