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British inventor takes flight in ‘Iron Man’ suit
British inventor Richard Browning lifted off from the shore of Vancouver Harbor on Thursday in a personal flight suit that inspired references to comic superhero 'Iron Man.'
Using thrusters attached to his arms and back, Browning flew in a circle and hovered a short distance from the ground, captivating attendees at a prestigious TED Conference.
The personal flight suit is capable of
“The hypothesis was that the human mind and
Browning told of experimenting with various numbers and arrays of essentially miniature jet engines on his limbs.
Along the way, he said, there were more than a few crashes to the ground.
“The whole journey was about trying and failing, and learning from that,” Browning said.
The first reasonably stable, six-second flight with the gear inspired his team to press on.
His startup, Gravity, formally debuted about a month ago with an
A 55-second video clip of the suit in action has logged more than a million views since being posted on YouTube about three weeks ago.
Browning said he is already getting
“I don’t think anyone is going to be going down to Wal-Mart with it or taking anybody to school for quite a while, but the team at Gravity is moving it along,” Browning said.
He dreams of a flight suit that one day will allow its wearer to launch from a beach, soar along the coast and then perhaps hop into a helicopter in the air to continue their journey.
Browning has already seen the
He also described the project as part of a personal journey, inspired by an engineer father with a love for flying machines, but who died when he was just a teenager. DM