Richard's inspiration
Ex-soldier, Richard Browning is re-imagining manned flight in the shape of a bespoke jet suit.
"I'm inspired by doing things that haven't been done."
The Birth of Daedalus
Richard Browning decided he wanted to fly five years ago and has been developing this particular suit in his garage in Salisbury, since the Summer of 2016. He named this mark 1 jet-engine suit after the Greek mythological figure Daedalus, the father of Icarus. He talks in more detail in this seven minute TED talk about his motivation and journey building the suit.
The Design Team
Mark Hester, of the Imagination Factory, who are developing the heads up display for him, recalls when they first joined forces:
"We met Richard at Innovate2016 when we were showcasing new technologies we'd discovered and were integrating into our own products. It was a busy day at the exhibition, as the response to the prototype we'd developed for swim training, had been overwhelming. It projects an athlete's training data into the water ahead of them, so they don't need to check a wrist timer mid-training and a number of alternative uses were being suggested by visitors to the stand, including Richard's."
"The Marvel character himself insists on constantly 'challenging possibilities' and it felt like we had met the real-life British version in person."
Red Bull Sponsorship
"Richard's jet-pack suit was coming together well, Red Bull was interested and he was depending on a very rudimentary practice to tell him about fuel level and engine performance. It meant playing it safer than he wanted, to avoid crash landing and was hugely limiting his flight times. We discussed some possibilities and arranged to meet up. Our use of heads-up display (HUD) tech was a dream come true for him and we were thrilled to start work and watch him test it out."
Jet engines
The force comes from six micro gas turbines (jet engines) mounted on his arms and lower back. Though the suit is capable of extreme speeds and altitudes, Browning is currently exercising a bit of restraint, requiring extreme levels of fitness to steady the jet streams.
"Working with Richard has been an inspiring experience," continued Mark, "because of his indomitable pioneering spirit."
Extending flight times
Has Richard Browning, crossed your radar yet this year? He's delivered a TED talk, 'flown' at a Wired conference and set a Guiness World Record for human flight amongst other stunts. It's been a real privilege to work alongside him on the HUD (head-up display) and be at various events with him, introducing people to the potential for human flight.
The new HUD we've built for him is enabling him to squeeze the most out of the fuel tank with each flight. There have been many iterations of the code and we designed and built a new piece of hardware that fits inside his helmet.
Do you have a project we can help you with?
Get in touch with one of us at The Imagination Factory today, we'd love to know more.