Actor Russell Johnson died yesterday at the age of 89. He was best known for his role as The Professor on the hit TV show Gilligan’s Island from 1964 until 1967. In honor of the actor, Mental Floss has compiled a list of the good Professor’s greatest inventions —greatest inventions that never were.
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Number two on the list of promised future technologies that have yet to be delivered, right behind the flying car, is the personal jetpack. Hollywood’s delivered them in spades thanks to special effects, but in real-life New Zealand-based Martin Aircraft
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The jetpack would emerge in popular American science fiction of the 1920s, and later become cemented into the popular imagination after World War II. But the idea of single-flyer personal transportation tech didn’t start with the jetpack. In the late 19th century, people were obsessed with flight. And they imagined a future where strapping a pair of wings to your back would be quite the trend in the skies of tomorrow.
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You could probably argue there are worse offenders, but there’s no denying that James Bond’s Thunderball jetpack is definitely up there in the pantheon of ridiculous 00-gadgets. Tinkerer Rodger Cleye recently tried to put a more realistic spin on the concept, and the result is this still-ridiculous-but-fully-functioning quadcopter "belt."
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