Snowflakes in Hell

Water Jet Pack

Posted by: Sebastian on date

Jul 29th, 2008 | filed

Filed under: Weird

I was looking around for a toy I had when I was a kid. Basically a water powered rocket that you pumped up, and it would launch about 30 feet in the air.

“Well, if it goes so far up, then surely it would fly a good distance horizontally, especially if I aimed it at…. my sister!”

Well, turns out it hurts really bad to get beamed in the head with a water rocket, so it was no more rocket propelled toys for me after that. I figured almost certainly the Safety Nazi Nanny Staters would have banned that bit of fun by now, but no… You can still buy one. Of course, the same basic principle eventually leads to this:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6943201001782160188

10 Responses to “Water Jet Pack”

chris Said,
July 29th, 2008 at 9:03 pm

i want to find a place to buy lawn darts

joated Said,
July 29th, 2008 at 9:43 pm

That video is freakin’ amazing! I love it. And while I may not have th cajones to try something like that myself I can totally see my 25 year-old son doing this.

vinnie Said,
July 29th, 2008 at 10:13 pm

The old valve stem from a tubeless tire rim will fit perfectly in the mouth of a 2 liter bottle. Mr. Wizard taught me that.

Use a long airhose and/or be sure that your compressor is weatherproof.

Raspberrysurprise Said,
July 29th, 2008 at 10:36 pm

Where can I get a Met helm like he was wearing?

Regolith Said,
July 30th, 2008 at 12:53 am

I hate to be that guy but….something doesn’t look right. I think it was partially faked - i.e, they used a crane.

Mythbusters did something like this, and they did get some lift, but nothing like what was seen in that video.

Sebastian Said,
July 30th, 2008 at 12:59 am

Yeah, I agree. I expected it to do nothing, but when it launched the guy I thought it was pretty funny.

VariableFeedback Said,
July 30th, 2008 at 3:28 pm

Re: Lawn Darts - Try http://www.lawndartparts.com/
You can’t buy the assembled darts, but you can buy replacement parts for each and every part of the dart. What you do with all of those parts is up to you ;)

Chas Clifton Said,
July 30th, 2008 at 11:37 pm

American Science and Surplus has air-powered rockets too.

Stryth Said,
July 31st, 2008 at 3:28 am

I’m with Regolith - This doesn’t look right. Any thrust generated from the bottles is massively far back from his center of gravity, and I expected to see him cartwheeling as a result with little to no distance. I’m going with “faked.”