The Hacksmith: Real Life Double Jump Jetpack

2019-08-15 | By The Hacksmith

License: See Original Project

The double jump: saving the lives of video game characters since 1984. A double jump in a video game is when your character can jump a second time in the air after jumping off of the ground. Many believe the first video game to feature a double jump was Dragon Buster, in 1984. Since then, the double jump has become common in many popular games like Super Smash Bros, Unreal Tournament, Ninja Gaiden, and many more.

Obviously, doing a double jump in real life is impossible… unless you have a jetpack! See how Hacksmith Industries made a jetpack capable of double jumping in real life in the video below!

How Does It Work?

The double jumping jet pack is fastened to a harness that sits at the wearer’s waist, with handles coming off of each hip. This setup is similar to the omni-directional mobility gear from Attack on Titan, except it uses jets instead of hydraulic cables. The jets used to propel the rider are two KingTech K320g, the same jet engines used for the Arduino-controlled jet engine bike and the jet thruster on the Iron Man suit.

The controls for the jet thrusters center around an Arduino Pro Mini microcontroller. Although the engines are steered without any electronic assistance, the Arduino Pro Mini controls the throttle, allowing the rider to control the speed of the jet engine. The fuel for the jets sits in a backpack that the rider wears.

The control handles were salvaged from two electric drills. The drills’ handles already have trigger buttons, and are of course, handled shaped, which saved a lot of time making the steering mechanisms. Pads were added above the engines so the person flying the device can rest their forearms on them and have more control. Still, it requires some forearm and core strength to stabilize the jetpack.

You can check out the parts used to bring this project to life in the Schematic below!

Schematic and BOM

More Video Games and More Jet Engines

Hacksmith Industries has made a few projects with jet engines and even more from video games. Check out these other projects on Maker.io!