A British inventor builds fly suit similar to that of Iron Man. In fact, he has flown it at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) conference in Vancouver, Canada.

Richard Browning, the real-life Iron Man, created his jet pack using six miniature engines and a personalized exoskeleton. According to BBC, Richard was inspired by his father who apparently killed himself when he was still a teenager. Richard is a Royal Marine Reserve while his father was an aeronautical engineer.

To be specific, the exhibition flight took place outside the Vancouver Convention Center. Richard also wore a "sophisticated" helmet with a heads-up display that shows information like fuel consumption. Otherwise known as the Daedalus suit, anyone in it could take off vertically. Per the same source, Richard's eight-year-old son named it after the father of Icarus.

Meanwhile, to control the jetpack, Richard uses his arms. Basically, his limbs control the direction and speed of the flight. Right now, Daedalus is capable of flying at maximum speeds of up to 200mph (321km/h). Its altitude reaches as far as "a few thousand feet". However, for safety reasons, Richard keeps his altitude and speed low.

Nevertheless, he assures that the jetpack is still "safer than a motorbike". Lastly, it can operate for roughly 10 minutes. Indeed, there are still a lot of rooms for improvement.

Now, Gulf News reported that the inventor failed for quite many times before actually lifting off using the miniature jets. What motivated him along the way was the first "reasonably stable" six-second flight. Daedalus is under Richard's own startup called Gravity. A 55-second video eventually appeared on YouTube that instantly gained hits.

On the other hand, Richard admitted that he is already getting various interests from investors to develop his brain child. Some at the British military told him that they have given up on the flight features of Iron Man until they saw Richard's work. Here is the video of the remarkable invention that may soon change the meaning of human transportation:

Topics Iron man, Aviation