Flying a jetpack seems really dangerous. I still want one. | Opinion

Strapping on a jetpack, pressing flight goggles over my eyes and blasting away into a clear sky seems like a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Many of my childhood daydreams revolved around just this.

It’s unlikely you’ll spot a jetpack outside your window, but they do exist. While today’s models are expensive and mostly used by the military or for exhibitions, you can actually buy one – if you have a few hundred thousand bucks lying around.

Sadly, most of us have to settle for watching videos of test flights and demonstrations of jetpacks, like the models from JetPack Aviation or Gravity Industries. I’ve watched these videos over and over, thinking: “Now, that looks like fun!”

Jetpacks aren't just a product of sci-fi movies

Of course, jetpacks are hardly new. Americans have been obsessed with them for decades. Ever since Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and the Jetsons blasted off in our newspapers and TV screens, jetpacks have been in our culture.

The first time someone was crazy enough to strap one on and fly it was 1961, when the Army commissioned Bell Aerosystems to build the Bell Rocket Belt and a pilot rocketed through the sky for less than a minute.

The Rocket Belt’s design was even inspired by the ones that appeared in the early comic strips.

Since then, jetpacks have steadily improved. They have been used for experiments and demonstrations over the years. A pair of pilots famously flew jetpacks at the 1967 Super Bowl halftime show, while a marching band played on the football field below.

Bill Suitor, one of the pilots who performed for the halftime show, made another appearance in 1984, when he flew again for the Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Los Angeles.

But rarely have they been available for regular people to try out.

Jetpacks can fly longer today, but not by much

Jetpacks today can fly longer than those few seconds they managed in the 1960s, but not by much.

The models from JetPack Aviation and Gravity Industries are both limited to flying 10 minutes or less before running out of fuel.

While these companies use aviation fuel to power their models, jetpacks powered with batteries could be an alternative some day.

Gravity Industries even has a prototype that runs on batteries, with a flight time of about 15 seconds.

However, even today’s advanced battery technology is limited. Getting off the ground requires a lot of energy. Compared to traditional fuels, the batteries we have just aren’t quite strong enough – yet.

Jetpacks may always be in our future, not our present

So jetpacks still have few practical uses. You’d need to live very close to your job if you wanted to fly one to beat the morning traffic. There are also those pesky flight rules. The Federal Aviation Administration pays close attention to these things.

I don’t want one for my daily commute, though. The desire is much more basic. I just want to fly. It almost feels like an instinct.

I remember 30 years ago, when my dad taught me to ride a bike on a rough gravel slope beside the old amusement park down the street from our house in northern Louisiana. My pops said it was about as close to flying as you could get.

He was right. After a few test runs, a skinned knee and some bruises, I flew down that gravel lot. It was like nothing I’d felt before.

It’s that same feeling that gets me revved up about flying a jetpack.

Sure, it’s easy to see why we don’t use them. Even if they were affordable, even if they could fly longer than a few minutes, it just seems like a bad idea.

Imagine navigating a sky filled with people using jetpacks. I can’t help but to think that it would be catastrophic for all involved, including people on the ground below.

The prospects of midair collisions and falling debris quickly put to bed any hope of donning jetpacks as a means of everyday travel.

It’s too bad. Because I still wonder what flying a jetpack is like. I still daydream about it. Maybe I’ll never get the chance to try one – and that might be for the best.

Dang, it looks dangerous. It looks really fun, too.

Julian Dossett is a writer living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He’s a contributor at SPACE.com, CNET and New Mexico Magazine.