Jetpack Dreams chronicles the colorful pop history and science of that most amazing and mysterious of machines, the jetpack. While exploring our collective fascination with flight, the tale 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?
Hey all, good to see you. Or, rather, glad you are here. This is a place devoted to all things Jetpack Dreams, as you may have guessed. So is this place: www.jetpackdreams.com. Pretty clever name for the book's website, eh?
Anyway, I suppose I should tell you I grew up in Baltimore, MD, which is pretty much as depicted in John Waters movies, only less pompadours. I spent a bunch of years on the west coast where I met my wife, Catherine, who appears in the book. So do our charming, amazing, hilarious and utterly exhausting daughters, Oona and Daphne. I will write some more stuff here later but better run for now. See you soon!
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