In the late 1940 's, during the last years of WWII, when a german V2 rocket soared over his home town my father got an idea for a "rocket-belt". He was very convinced his invention would change the balance of powers and in fear his idea would fall into the wrong hands since the gestapo posted on every street corner he smuggled the drawings and his first prototype to the United States. Limited by the poor technical resources of this era also in the land of possibilities his prototype never took off and the invention got into oblivion. Although the fact my father is quite happy with his fame as the inventor of "het vingerhoedje" and some less known inventions as a Do It Yourself liposuction kit he felt extremly honored with my idea to finish his invention.
a rare photograph of my father with a mock-up model of his jet-pack. Many thanks to C.Yeager Houston, USA for sending me this photo.
Rare picture of one of the first test flights on the 'Brunsummerheide' field, march 1944. After this test the germans got ear of my father's experiments and he smuggled his invention out of the Netherlands
So it was probably in my genes that I already started experimenting with jet-packs when I was young. In 1990 I tried to launch myself using gunpowder.
assembly of pressure tank
started on a 1:1 model and found an aluminium pan which I will use as an cylindrical fin. My body will be strapped to the frame and my feet will stand on the ledge of the fin, this to make sure my body will stay straight and not influence the flight direction.
