Smithsonian Magazine’s “Future is Here” festival in Washington lived up to its name over the weekend when a human pilot flew a real, fully-functional jetpack around the packed atrium of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.
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Saturday’s 20-second flight marks the device’s first public demonstration outside of developer Jet PI’s warehouse. According to livescience, the jetpack has a maximum flight time of 26 second before expending all of its hydrogen peroxide and nitrogen gas fuel combination, which catalyze with silver to produce jets of steam acting as thrust.
The pilot controls the device via two handles, one of which regulates power while the other controls roll, pitch and yaw. Though the cost of development reportedly falls somewhere between $100,000 to $150,000, the device isn’t for sale yet — though could theoretically be assembled with available off-the-shelf components.
As the name implies, the “Future is Here” festival centers around technological development, space exploration and science fiction over two days. Jet PI’s new invention will be featured in an upcoming Smithsonian documentary about the history and future of jetpacks.