New Zealand inventor Glenn Martin spent more than 16 years and went through 12 different jetpack prototypes before striking gold developing Martin Aircraft Company.
With a price tag of $250,000, Martin and his company has raised $27 million by issuing shares to interested investors. Most were actually taken up by China-based investor Kuang-Chi Science. As the shares have swept up the marketplace, Martin Aircraft is planning on becoming the world's first commercial manufacturer of jetpacks.
The company is planning on having products available for domestic and international release in 2017.
A strong demand from wealthy Chinese buys hopes to impact the Martin Aircraft dream in a favorable way. This morning, Australia-time, the company has gone public, listing on the Australian Securities Exchange and in Hong Kong, with a market capitalization of about $3 billion USD.
Kuang-Chi chairman Ruopeng Liu, who arrived to Sydney ahead of the listing, said his company is incredibly eager to sell jetpacks as "disaster first response vehicles" to government agencies and NGOs, as well as to wealthy private buyers.
"There are a lot of rich people in China and many are keen to own their own jetpack," Dr. Liu told The Australian. "Not because it replaces their car, but because a jetpack is a jetpack."
The specs are equally interesting as the Martin Aircraft-created invention can fly up to 1km high for half an hour at a time. Under the agreement with Kuang-Chi, the company will subscribe for between $23 million and $29 million in convertible notes within 30 months. Martin Aircraft chief executive Peter Coker said that Kuang-Chi's involvement means that the company would focus primarily on the Chinese market.
"One of the biggest risks is trying to grow too quickly, or into too many countries," Mr. Coker said. "That's why we see the China key-responded market as a key focus."
In addition to the company being a part of Martin Aircraft's unveiling, the Chinese government is also relaxing its stance on Chinese airspace rules. This will allow commercial pilots to fly in many parts of the country previously off-limits.
Under the governmental changes, private flights or commercial flights of up to 1500m would be permitted. Prior to the announcement of the Martin Aircraft jetpack, China's airspace was restricted to military flights only.
Watch the Martin Aircraft jetpack in action below:
