Eponymously Yours, W. Skeffington Higgins

The rocket belt world is abuzz with anticipation. Rocket belts appear in the 5 January episode of the detective show NCIS* on CBS.

Dan Schlund flew the Powerhouse Productions belt. Kinnie Gibson, former stuntman, former rocket belt pilot, and owner of Powerhouse, coordinated the stunt flights. I understand the writers consulted Kathleen Lennon Clough and Derwin Beushausen about historical information.

Here's a Ventura County Star account of the filming.

NCIS comes to us from Don Bellisario's Belisarius Productions, purveyors of palatable television cheese-- often incorporating flying machines-- since 1980. It is Mr. Bellisario and his colleagues we have to thank for Magnum, P.I., Airwolf, Quantum Leap, JAG, and Tales of the Gold Monkey, among other series.**

(The episode is entitled "Ignition," which is intended to evoke rocketry, I suppose. I don't think "ignition" can be said to occur inside a rocket belt, because "combustion" doesn't take place. Rocket belts run on the catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide into hot steam and oxygen, which is sort of the opposite of combustion. Probably "Decomposition" wouldn't be as snappy a title for an episode. Though, given that the protagonists are constantly dealing with grotesquely-murdered bodies, and that viewers are pretty much guaranteed to witness at least one autopsy in every episode of NCIS, "Decomposition" would probably be an appropriate title at some point. Perhaps it has already been used.)

NCIS is the most jolly of the many autopsy-detective shows that parade across our TV screens, so at our house we are looking forward to watching this. We enjoy cheese.

*Naval Criminal Investigative Service, a real-life law enforcement agency of the U.S. federal government.

**If they had all followed the 21st-century trend in naming TV shows, these series would have been known as M, P.I., A, QL, JAG, and TOTGM. In this sense, JAG was ahead of its time, and Magnum, P.I. was partially ahead of its time.

Mac Montandon's new book Jetpack Dreams has just been published. I met Mac at the Rocketbelt Convention in 2006, and since then we have corresponded occasionally. He set out to chronicle the past and future of the jetpack, and emotions about the jetpack.

It's being promoted very effectively, having been reviewed by Wall Street Journal, Time, and GQ. And it popped up at Boingboing yesterday.

Mac has also started a Jetpack Dreams blog and you can read excerpts from the book at his site. I liked this:

As I began telling friends and colleagues about my plan, I quickly realized that I was far from alone. In fact, just about every (male) friend I told, regardless of age, responded with what can only be called spazzy enthusiasm. One guy, a majestically ironic twenty-something magazine editor, confessed manically to me: “Yes! Yes, totally. I remember sitting in class when I was a little kid just wishing I could blast off with a jetpack and get out of there.” He gripped the side of his chair to demonstrate and shook like a hipster epileptic while making throaty blast-off noises: “Shhhhrrrrrruugghhhh!”

We were having lunch in one of those Manhattan restaurants where the wait staff consists entirely of supermodels, and by acting so publicly geeky, he was ensuring that he would never get to date one. By extension, my friend was basically telling me that he’d rather talk about jetpacks than have sex with a supermodel.

I am braced for the possibility that Jetpack Dreams will not be entirely flattering. One review quotes a description of rocket belt enthusiasts: "These are the anonymous, doughy faces of obsession." But since the book does seem to address certain aspects of the twenty first-century Zetgeist, it may prove to be popular.

The most remarkable thing about the launch (sorry, I can't help myself) of this book is that it comes with a trailer. That's right, a trailer.


Jetpack Dreams Trailer from Mac Montandon on Vimeo.

More books should have trailers, I think.

You may recall that I attended the Rocketbelt Convention last year, had a wonderful time, met old rocket belt hands and new inventors, and (twice) watched GoFast rocket belt flights.

On 11 and 12 August-- the weekend after next-- a second Rocketbelt Convention will be held in Niagara Falls, New York. It will be part of the Thunder of Niagara Air Show that weekend, at the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station.

I understand there will be talks in a building on the airbase. Once again, former Bell Aerospace rocket belt pilots will be speaking. These guys were involved not only in the rocket belt, but in X-planes, Rogallo wings, VTOLs, and the Apollo program. Their stories are well worth hearing.

Even more next-generation belt builders will be on hand, along with some of their hardware. And there will again be rocket belt flights by the Jetpack International folks, sponsored by GoFast energy drink, still my favorite energy drink (though I've never tasted any).

If you like, while you're nearby, you can visit the Niagara Aerospace Museum in downtown Niagara Falls, which is mighty good.

This is your chance to see a man fly. Along with a bunch of more conventional aircraft. And to meet some peroxide-powered legends. Tell 'em I sent you. And spread the word.

Every night of the rocket belt conference, I worked to put a selection of photos on the Web and to write a little bit about them.

Last night Make magazine asked permission to post my photos to their blog.

New Scientist has linked to my Flickr photo collection.

Yesterday I wrote a posting for sci.space.history on Usenet. The Make editor liked this enough to run it.

And Xeni Jardin at Boingboing points to one of my Livejournal entries.

There's another account of the Rocketbelt Convention by Billy Paul at Gizmag.com. It's good.

The mother lode of this stuff is Peter Gijsbert's site. Peter has also used one of my photos on his main page.

I see Lockport paper covered Saturday's flight.

I think there are about 100 people attending. Today: juicy talks about Bell history, then a flight in the street outside the Niagara Aerospace Museum.



( More words and pictures )
Go Fast, by the way, is an energy drink. It is the only energy drink that has arranged for me to witness a rocket belt flight. At the moment, it is my FAVORITE energy drink. I wonder what it tastes like.

There will be another flight tomorrow on Third Street, immediately north of the big Seneca Casino.

Get to downtown Niagara Falls by 3:30 PM and you can see it.

In 1992, somebody asked about jetpacks, and I dipped into my Aircars And Other Weird Flying Vehicles file to explain them. Here is that posting, with addresses redacted by latterday Google archives.

( Rocket Belt and WASP (was Re: Jetpack) )

Just got off the phone with Kathleen Clough, one of the organizers of the Rocketbelt Convention next weekend in Niagara Falls. They are now planning two demonstration flights, on Saturday and on Sunday. And they got covered in the Niagara Gazette yesterday.

Apropos of the widespread discussion among correspondents returning from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow on its opening weekend, I just discovered this fine song. No, it's not in the movie; rather, Harry Shearer played it on his radio show.