[Robotbeat]

Agreed. And I think the comparison with a jet ski or other recreational vehicle is apt: this is for fun and show, for extreme sports, and perhaps some military or rescue applications. But pretty sweet nonetheless.

(Jet ski not the perfect analogy as jet skis are fairly safe and it's not unheard of for people who live on islands to use them for errands, etc, but yeah most people seem to use them for fun.)

You could extend the range and flight time by using a wingsuit, allowing up to a glide ratio of 3 or 4 without using structures other than the human body. But wingsuit flying and this iron man suit thing require immense strength, so physical exhaustion is probably even more of a constraint in this situation than fuel consumption.

[rawland]

Wingsuit and jet engines strapped to a human body?

Exists: Jetman - Yves Rossy (also a TED Video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2sT9KoII_M

Enjoy. ;-)

(That guy crosses the English channel at ~3:50.)

[Robotbeat]

Absolutely, however Yves Rossy's wing is rigid (cheating! :) ) and the setup requires diving off from an airplane (or a cliff or tall building) and landing with parachute.

I was just talking about keeping the vertical take-off, vertical landing and just adding extra material flaps between the arms and legs like a wingsuit to extend range and endurance.