British inventor Richard Browning took off from a shore in Vancouver on 27th April in an Iron Man-like suit that he made. He displayed it at TED conference.
The suit uses thrusters that are attached to his arms. He used the personal suit to hover over a short height from the ground. Although he did not do much height or distance with the suit, he claims that the suit is capable of going much higher, farther and faster.
The extreme athlete and innovator said, “The hypothesis was that the human mind and body if properly augmented, could achieve some pretty cool stuff.”
He also said that the process of coming up with the device involved a lot of trying and falling. His startup ‘Gravity’ formally started operations last month and the early model of the suit was called Daedalus.
Browning said that the suit has been drawing a lot of attention from investors. He also mentioned that someone in the British Army told him that they had completely lost interest in flying suits until they saw his model.
For long his model has been compared to the suit of Marvel comic character Tony Stark, but he insists that his model is based on realistic grounds and could prove to be very useful even for the common man if made economic.
He also described the project as a personal journey, that was inspired by his engineer father who had a lot of love for flying machines. He passed away when Browning was a teenager. The story is frighteningly similar to that of Tony Stark.
