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Jet suit-wearing paramedic scales mountain in 2 minutes
A training exercise showed how useful jet suits can be in emergency rescues on mountains that exceed 2,000 feet in altitude. (Gravity Industries)
A paramedic used a jet suit to scale a Romanian mountain in a rescue drill that took two minutes instead of the usual two-and-a-half hours.
Video from Gravity Industries shows the jet suit-wearing paramedic soar up the Trascaului Mountains in Tansylvania for a demonstration. The paramedic reached the roughly 1,640-foot summit in two minutes, the company said. Typically, it takes a rescue team two-and-a-half hours to hike the mountain.
"As with all new innovation, there are a number of challenges to address with multiple stakeholders," Gravity said in a news release. "However, ultimately this technology could help save lives in these hard to reach isolated locations."
Paramedic uses jet suit to scale mountain (Gravity Industries)
Viewers on social media pondered what happens after the rescuers reach the top in a jet suit (do they fly down as quickly as they ascended?), but the company notes that "for critical care cases such as cardiac arrest, as simulated in this exercise, every minute counts."
The company launched in 2017, and the jet suit used in the training exercise was 3D-printed and has seven jet engines. It’s capable of topping 85 mph, but typically goes much slower for safety reasons.
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The jet suits are being tested in search and rescue operations, military and entertainment and racing, "but essentially it is used to provide unique human ultra-mobility."