Imagine this scenario: you’re out hiking in the British mountains, maybe in Wales (by the famous Brekin Beacons) or the famous Lake District, when you trip, fall, and injure your leg. You’re unable to walk another step. You pull out your phone and place a call to the authorities, but you’re a good hours hike from the nearest road, and the terrain isn’t easy for helicopters. You’re worried. You wait.
Then you suddenly hear a loud noise, like a combination of a roar and a hiss. You scan the sky to find the source and see a man in a red suit making a descent from high up, powered by engines on his back and hands. No, it’s not Iron Man. If a new project comes through, it will be a mountain rescuer wearing a jet pack. No kidding.
Great North Air Ambulance Service, a rescue service in the UK, has been working with Gravity Industries to develop a jet pack suit that allows a rescuer to reach an injured in the mountains in a matter of minutes, rather than hours.
Check out the video of the test:
In time, the plan is for the rescuer to carry a med-pack with basic treatment options, pain killers, and a portable defibrillator, allowing them to give life-saving first response treatment until more help arrives.
Thomas Grønfeldt Senger 