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Martin Aircraft’s Jetpack Gets Listed on Australia’s Stock Market, Will Deliver in 2016

It might have taken 30 years for Glenn Martin from New Zealand to complete, but the famous Jetpack proved to be more than a experimental personal flying craft on Tuesday, when the company was listed on Australia’s stock market. The company was valued at more than $100 million when it listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, as first deliveries are now scheduled for the second-half of 2016.
Martin Aircraft’s Jetpack 14 photos
Photo: Martin Aircrafts Jetpack
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Call us naive, but we believe this man is one of the best examples of people that have never stopped working to fulfill their dream, no matter how much sacrifice it took or time for that matter.

Martin’s dream started in 1981, when he was still an university student. He did believe the world is ready to finally receive the personal flying device that was so popular back in the 1950s and 1960s, especially in the military. He started working on the world’s first commercial jetpack.

The years have passed and Martin would turn a garage hobby into a project that later transformed into a company. Glenn, a biochemist by trade, said he pursued a day job in sales and marketing in the early days of founding the company, because he believed it’s one of the keys to his product’s success. He admitted though that without his wife Vanessa, who worked full-time while he concentrated on research and development, the Jetpack would have never reached this point.

Behind every succesful man, there is a strong woman

When the first prototype was ready back in 2004, they filmed Vanessa as she flew the aircraft for the first time. The footage became quite viral and almost immediately attracted investors. Today, the Martin family remain the third largest shareholders in the newly listed company with a 15.8% stake worth $15.8 million. One of the big backers is Chinese aerospace group Kuang-Chi Science that ended up buying $21 million worth of shares in exchange for a 23% stake.

Future million-dollar investments will be made, which leads us to believe we’re about to see a lot of these puppies flying our skies in the near future. The current model runs on 200 horsepower V4 engine running on petrol that runs two ducted fans. According to its maker, the aircraft is capable of a maximum of 30-minute flight per tank reaching speeds of up to 74 km/h (46mph) and altitudes of up to 1,000 meters (3,280 ft).

The maximum commercial payload that the Martin Jetpack can carry is 120 kilograms (264 lbs), but customized versions for military or emergency services are expected to be built in the near future. For the basic model a retail price that starts from $200,000 is expected and a pilot's license will most likely be needed to fly it. Yet, we’re pretty confident there’s a lot of potential with the device.

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