Firm hopes to nail big jetpack deal with government

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LIFT OFF: Martin Aircraft Company boss Richard Lauder says a country is interested in purchasing jetpacks for access in civil emergencies.

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Martin Aircraft Company, the inventor of a personal "flying machine", expects to take six months to nail down a potential $100 million-a-year deal with a foreign government.

Chief executive Richard Lauder said the firm had signed a heads of agreement to supply at least 500 jetpacks a year for search and rescue purposes.

The non-binding agreement set some basic parameters in the deal but the detail had to be negotiated.

The company was bound not to disclose which government organisation but that would be made public when a final deal was completed.

"It's a country that wants jetpacks for access in civil emergencies," Lauder said.

Yesterday jetpack inventor Glenn Martin was hosting another government also interested in the technology but Lauder played that down saying the company received a lot of visitors.

Lauder said Christchurch-based Martin Aircraft was in negotiations with an aviation specialist, which supplied the government with which there was the heads of agreement, to set up a joint venture company in the country to make the jetpacks for the government.

"It takes a lot from our end to deliver on a JV," Lauder said.

It could be another six months of discussions to complete negotiations, Lauder said.

Martin Aircraft was contributing the technology to the joint venture and the aviation company the money for the manufacture. Martin Aircraft would own a bit less than 50 per cent because under that country's law the company has to be majority locally owned.

While the jetpack was flying only one to two metres off the ground, Lauder said it could fly higher. However that was not being done till the company installed a ballistic parachute into the machine and completed testing.

He thought it would only be about 12 months until the joint venture was supplying the jetpacks to the government.

"We think the JV could get up to speed very quickly."

The aviation partner had the skills and competency to test and refine the jetpack, still an experimental technology, for higher and faster flying.

Lauder said Martin Aircraft had the ability to include remote control flying of the jetpack.

That might mean that in the future an unmanned jetpack could be flown across a river to retrieve someone in an emergency. The jetpack could not carry two people at once.

Meanwhile, one of two auctions for being a jetpack test flier for a day has drawn one bid of US$30,000 (NZ$42,577) on eBay. There have been 152 bids on the other auction on Trade Me, with the highest $3020. The auctions close on Thursday.