British inventor wows crowds by taking flight in his 'Iron Man' suit

Hovering in the air to the amazement of onlookers, British inventor Richard Browning proves jet packs are no mere sci-fi flight of fancy.



The City trader and engineer, 38, built the £40,000 ultra-lightweight exoskeleton – inspired by the Marvel comic book superhero Iron Man – in his spare time.



Yesterday, he demonstrated the Iron Man-style suit to a stunned crowd at the TED Conference currently being held in Canada.
Pointing down creates what Mr Browning calls a ‘teepee of thrust vectors’.



He went airborne on the shores of Vancouver Harbour to demonstrate his flight suit at the Ted (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference which is currently being staged in the Canadian city.



His performance captivated attendees at the conference, organised by a media group dedicated to sharing 'ideas worth spreading'.
The Royal Marines reservist, from Wiltshire, said he had long been fascinated by the possibilities of human flight propulsion and had been working on his flight suit for almost three years.



Many compared the 38-year-old to Tony Stark's character in Iron Man.



The personal flight suit is capable of propelling its users even higher and at greater speeds, according to its creator, flying at several hundred miles per hour, and reaching thousands of feet above the ground.



'The hypothesis was that the human mind and body, if properly augmented, could achieve some pretty cool stuff,' the extreme athlete and engineer said at the gathering.


Mr Browning spoke about his early experiments with various numbers and arrays of essentially miniature jet engines on his limbs.
And along the way there were more than a few crashes to the ground.



'The whole journey was about trying and failing, and learning from that,' he said.



The first reasonably stable, six-second flight with the gear inspired his team to press on.