We’re familiar with wearable jetpacks that make you airborne, but here’s an invention that targets groundspeed instead.
Students at Arizona State University have designed a jetpack to help soldiers run a 4-minute mile. The project, titled 4MM and funded by DARPA, aims to increase speed and agility, especially for soldiers on the battlefield where a mere few seconds is the difference between life or death. ASU engineer Jason Kerestes is the mastermind behind this project and has built a prototype currently being tested. The goal is to get any fully armored soldier, despite their natural speed capabilities, to run a 4-minute mile. So far, in 200-meter trials, test subjects have been able to shave a few seconds off their time. Not bad for carrying an 11-pound jetpack while running.
If successful, this jetpack could potentially save hundreds of lives during combat. But we’ve got to ask—where can a civilian/average runner get their hands on one, just to know what a 4-minute mile feels like?
The post Monday Motivation: The 4-Minute Mile Jetpack appeared first on Competitor.com.