For Business Insider, Daniel Gessner wrote an article called ‘Why it’s taken nearly 100 years to have jet packs‘ which looked at a brief history of jet packs and why it’s taken so long for them to work in a practical sense. But it looks like the military have made great strides in jet pack technology (groan):
Narrator: […] As exciting as it would be to see Marines using jet packs in combat or search-and-rescue teams using them to save a stranded hiker, does the technology have a place in everyday life?
Richard: There’s two answers to the question, “How broad will this go beyond niche applications?” And, I mean, the one answer is, at the moment it would be as practical as taking an IndyCar or a NASCAR to Walmart, right? I mean, it’s a car. You could put some bags in somewhere. But, I mean, it’s just silly. It’s just massively overpowered, pretty antisocial, very hard to drive to the shops in traffic.
I still think jet pack tech peaked with the 1991 Disney classic, The Rocketeer, and Michael Jackson flying off stage in Bucharest during his Dangerous Tour in 1992. Jet packs are still impractical and will/should stay that way.