Jetpack Dreams

A chronicle of the colorful pop history and science of that most amazing and mysterious of machines.
"A delightful and engrossing story of the quest for one of humankind's greatest technological fantasies—to strap on a device and fly like a bird." —Mark Frauenfelder, founder of BoingBoing.net

While exploring our collective fascination with flight, Jetpack Dreams takes readers from the first flimsy, shoulder-mounted wings to Bill Suitor's 1984 Olympic flight in front of billions of viewers around the world; from a gruesome jetpack-driven murder in Houston in the mid-1990s to the secret laboratories and government facilities of today.


Journalist Mac Montandon also explores Hollywood's fascination with the subject, from the 1949 serial King of the Rocket Men to Lost in Space, The Jetsons and The Rocketeer to the cultural jetpack phenomenon represented by Buck Rogers, James Bond, and Boba Fett. He travels the world to meet jetpack enthusiasts who are readying their own personal flying machines for takeoff.


Ultimately, it's the search for an answer to two simple questions: Where is the jetpack that was promised to him, and to all of us, years ago? And if it's out there, can he catch a ride?

"Exhaustively explor[es] the rich history of personalized pyrotechnic-propelled portability . . . But perhaps the best part of the book is the ongoing examination of why we find them so fascinating, and why we even want jetpacks at all . . . A merry tribute to a quirky piece of aviation history." —San Francisco Book Review