A YouTube collection of grainy video clips highlights the progress Gravity founder Richard Browning has made toward his outlandish dream over the past year…
A YouTube collection of grainy video clips highlights the progress Gravity founder Richard Browning has made toward his outlandish dream over the past year. Each seems more terrifying than the last, with multiple jet engines attached to his limbs in various configurations, as he hovers a few feet from the ground.
The press material attached to the announcement heralds the oil trader turned entrepreneur as a real life Iron Man, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that you’re watching some sort of backyard mad scientist, a few moments away from the world’s most dangerous Jack Ass stunt. Browning acknowledges how downright alarming the footage of the Daedelus rig appears, but shakes off any notion that he’s actually in danger at any point during the three-and-a-half minute package.
“I can just strap this thing on and go flying at a moment’s notice,” he told TechCrunch in a phone interview this week. “It’s less dangerous than riding a sports bike through the countryside.” Browning rattles off a list of safety precautions with the excitement of a child attempting to convince a parent about the safety of some ill-advised new toy. He adds that he has yet to injure himself during operation.
The top speed of the current configuration isn’t any faster than a human running pace, Browning explains, and the aviation fuel was chosen specifically for its non-explosive qualities. The craft never hovers more than a few meters above the ground by design and there’s an unfortunately named dead man’s switch he has to keep pressed at all times to continue operation.
