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Can You Build a Jetpack at Home? A Reality Check

Marcos Salles By Marcos Salles Updated 11 min read

Quick answer

Not safely. People do strap jet engines to a harness at home, but the two homemade rigs I read about only hopped or showed no flight at all, and their builders reported burned skin, engine parts near 1,000 °C (1,830 °F) and engines cutting out. The jetpacks and jet suits that really fly come from funded companies and a university team, and FAA Part 103 limits what counts as an ultralight.

A man in a black helmet with orange goggles and dark padded clothing hovering a few inches above a cracked concrete yard, with two pairs of perforated metal jet engines on his forearms and an engine pack on his back, cars and hay bales behind him
AI-generated image (ChatGPT), not a photograph. It illustrates a homemade-style jet suit hopping a few inches off the ground; it is not footage of a real flight or of any company's suit.
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Search "how to build a jetpack" and you get a ladder of videos. At the bottom are costumes made of bottles and cardboard. In the middle are real jet engines on a harness that make a lot of noise, hop a few feet and, in one case I read, show no flight at all. At the top are the few machines that truly fly, and a company or a university team stands behind every one of them. This guide walks up that ladder and says where "homemade" stops working.

I worked from the transcripts and YouTube pages of three videos, plus a craft project, a trade-press story, Wikipedia, the FAA rule and a news item about a university team, all listed at the end with the dates I read them. I left out build steps and parts on purpose, so nothing here is advice on how to make one.

Can you build a jetpack at home?

You can build something that runs a jet engine, and two videos show it. From everything I read, you can't build one that flies a person safely. The homemade rigs in those transcripts jumped, floated down from a table or blew people around on a skateboard, and their builders describe injuries, heat and engines that quit.

The ladder in one lookCostume: looks right, gives no lift. Homemade jet rig: runs and hops, with injuries and failures reported by its own builders. Company or university machine: flies, with training and rules.

Are cardboard and steel jetpacks real?

They are real props, and some are lovely. The Instructables "DIY Jet Pack," published May 8, 2020 by the Maker Studio, a museum makerspace at Science City in Kansas City, builds a jetpack from plastic bottles, cardboard, cups and hot glue. Its own text is honest about the gap: "It's really challenging to design a jetpack that has enough force to push a human into the air but is also safe for a human to wear on their backs."

At the other end of the craft scale is David Guyton's Rocketeer jetpack, made from sheet steel. Hackaday's Jenny List wrote on July 31, 2017 that the appeal of his video is the craftsmanship of the metalwork, and that some engine details are cast in resin. It is a museum-quality prop, not an aircraft.

What do homemade jet-powered jetpacks actually do?

Two videos show real jet engines on a person's back, and I read both transcripts. They are the closest thing to a "build it at home" answer I found. The table sets them next to a TV segment with a similar title.

A homemade jet engine with a yellow combustion chamber, silver exhaust nozzle, car battery, fuel lines and wiring, mounted in an open aluminium frame on small wheels on a concrete yard
A homemade prototype jet engine with an afterburner on a wheeled frame. It is not a jetpack: it shows how much plumbing, fuel and wiring one small jet engine needs before anyone straps it to a person. Photo: Nikoskdx, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped).
VideoWhat it showsDoes anyone fly?
Hacksmith Industries, "I Made a Jet Pack! (ONE DAY BUILD)" (Aug. 15, 2019; 3.9 million views)Two small jet engines on a harness, built in a machine shop; a tester's arms hurt by the starter motors, dirt sucked in, wires straining, a fuel run-out and a kill switch that kept cutting outJumps and a float down from a table, no sustained flight
Hunter Kowald, "How to build a real JETPACK Jet Suit that actually flies" (Apr. 27, 2022; about 159,000 views)A friend's five-engine rig with its own control software; engines shut down on the first test, two weeks to find a programming error, smoke and about 1,000 °C (1,830 °F) insideNot in the transcript; the rig is used to blow people around on a skateboard
Science Channel, "How to Build a Jetpack" (June 22, 2016; about 159,000 views)A narrated "steps" segment about the JB-9, a pack a company built, with a joke about jetpack insuranceThe JB-9 flew in 2015, built by a company

Three videos about building a jetpack, read as transcripts. View counts are as shown on YouTube on Nov. 4, 2026.

The Hacksmith "jet belt" is the best-made of the two, and the video is open about what went wrong. The first tester called it "actually terrifying" and did not use full throttle. The engines' starter motors "tried to suck my arms in and it damaged the skin on my arms," so the team added a bracket. The engines pulled in dirt and grass, the wires to a fuel valve were straining, one run ended in smoke when the fuel ran out, and a tester complained that his feet were burning. Neighbors complained about the noise and the filming stopped. Then the kill switch started cutting out. The pilot said he was lucky both cuts came while he stood on something, because when one engine dies, "the whole thing just goes foop." The team ordered a third engine.

The Hunter Kowald video is titled as a jetpack that "actually flies," and the transcript tells a different story. A friend's rig with five engines and a phone app shut down on its first test. It took two weeks to find what the narrator describes as a programming error, and the fix on the last test day was twisting wires together and taping them to the frame. The narrator says the internals reached "probably about a thousand degrees Celsius" during the cooldown, and one participant said he was sprayed with gas while in the water. The builder's own words: "this thing is dangerous, I hacked it together in my basement." And then: "since we don't know how to fly it yet, we're gonna blow people around on a skateboard." The video ends with a promise that the next one will fly. I found no flight in the transcript.

My read: both teams solved the part that looks hardest on video, making jet engines run on a person's back, and stopped at the part that decides everything, staying up when something fails.

Why do homemade rigs hop instead of fly?

The two videos point to four reasons, and the companies' machines answer each one.

One failure drops everything. The Hacksmith pilot said it himself: when one engine dies, the whole rig tips. The JB-12 from JetPack Aviation has six turbojets, according to AVweb, with a flight computer managing them, and the university team below uses five engines. More engines and a computer in charge are what a company builds in.

The control software is half the machine. Two weeks went into one programming error in the Hunter Kowald video, and the workaround on the last test day was wire and tape. That is a fine way to learn and a bad way to fly.

Heat and fuel are close to the body. Engine internals near 1,000 °C (1,830 °F), fuel spray and smoke are all in those transcripts. The Science Channel segment adds that older "rocketpacks" could run out of fuel "in as short as 30 seconds," and presents jet turbines as the way to thrust for longer. Even then, the JB-10 is listed at about 8 minutes of flight, as my jetpack guide notes.

Flying is a trained skill. JetPack Aviation says every pilot completes its own training program, and first flights on a Gravity suit are tethered, as I explain in my jet suit guide. Neither transcript describes a training program.

Who has built a jetpack that really flies?

Three cases, and all of them are organizations. JetPack Aviation's JB-9 made a flight around the Statue of Liberty on November 3, 2015, according to Time. The company's FAQ answers the question of buying one with a flat no, and I explain what it did sell in my guide to buying a real jetpack.

A pilot in a black jet suit with small jet engines on both arms and a backpack, flying in a tilted pose a few meters above a blue bay, with a shingle beach in the foreground and a wooded shoreline behind
A Gravity jet suit pilot flying over water in 2019. Photo: ITookSomePhotos, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped).

Gravity Industries is the closest thing to a "garage" story, and its founder tells it himself. In his TED talk "How I built a jet suit," posted July 17, 2017, Richard Browning says he and a small group began by buying one small gas turbine, then tied two together for about 50 kg (110 lb) of thrust, then tried four. He describes a journey of trial and error: a belt idea that did not work, a fuel line he pulled out, a version with three engines on each arm that he calls ridiculous at about 70 kg per arm, and falls along the way. The first six seconds of decent flight came with one engine on each leg and two on each arm, and even after that, he says, they kept falling a lot. Stable flight without a tether took more refinement, down to a food container on his back to hold the electronics. He says they fly low because the worst that can happen is a fall.

Wikipedia says he set out in 2016 and made his first flight that November, and a Times profile from 2021, as listed in its references, is headlined "Richard Browning built a jet suit in his shed." My read: the shed story is real, and it is a story of many falls and a team, not a weekend project. Wikipedia also says he took initial investment and launched the company in April 2017, and the suits that now set speed records and give flight experiences are company products, not shed projects. My comparison of jet suit, jetpack and Flyboard Air shows how they differ.

The third case is a university. CGTN reported on November 4, 2025 that the JetRob Team from Zhejiang University had tested a jet-powered backpack "designed and built entirely in China," with five engines, direction and altitude controlled with arm movements, and a top speed of 100 km/h (about 62 mph). A university research team is a long way from a basement.

In the U.S., FAA Part 103 sets the rules for the lightest kind of aircraft, the ultralight vehicle, and the word "homemade" changes none of them. A powered ultralight carries one person, for recreation or sport only. Its empty weight stays under 254 pounds, its tank holds at most 5 U.S. gallons, and at full power in level flight it tops out at 55 knots (about 63 mph). Its power-off stall speed cannot exceed 24 knots.

The operating rules are strict too. Flights are limited to daylight (with a narrow twilight exception), never over a congested area or an open-air gathering of people, and in Class A to D airspace or an airport's surface area only with permission from air traffic control. Section 103.3 adds that the FAA can inspect a vehicle to decide whether the part applies, and that the operator must be able to show "satisfactory evidence" that it does. A video is not that kind of evidence.

A machine that goes beyond those limits is not an ultralight under this rule, and I found no shortcut for it. I only checked the U.S. rule, and this is not legal advice: ask the FAA, and your local authorities about noise and fuel, before anything leaves the drawing board. The Hacksmith team got a noise complaint from neighbors during its test.

How can you tell if a homemade jetpack video is real?

These two videos are real machines, not fakes. The problem is the title. A few checks from my guide to spotting a fake gadget video apply here:

  • Does the title match the footage? "Actually flies" and "we don't know how to fly it yet" cannot both be true.
  • Is there a take-off and a landing in one unbroken shot, with the pilot's feet visible?
  • Is there a maker you can look up, with a company, a record or a university behind the claim?
  • Do the builders show what goes wrong? The honest videos do.
  • Does "how to build" mean a tutorial or a script? The Science Channel segment's "you will need" lines are narration about a machine a company built, not a recipe.

So, can you build a jetpack at home?

You can build a costume, and you can make a jet engine run, but the homemade jet rigs I read about hop, burn and cut out. The jetpacks that fly come with funding, engineers, training and rules. I would treat a "how to build a real jetpack" title as entertainment, and if what you want is the feeling, a booked jet suit session is the realistic route. For other flying machines checked against the facts, see my guides to the real hoverboard and hoverbikes and viral videos, or browse all Reality Check articles.

Frequently asked questions

Can you build a working jetpack at home?

You can make a jet engine run on a harness, and two videos show it. In the transcripts I read, those rigs only hopped or showed no flight, and the builders describe burned skin, engine parts near 1,000 °C (1,830 °F) and engines cutting out.

Has anyone flown a homemade jetpack?

The closest case is Gravity Industries. Wikipedia says founder Richard Browning started in 2016 and first flew that November, and a Times profile is headlined "built a jet suit in his shed." In his 2017 TED talk he describes many failed versions and falls, and he then took investment and launched a company in April 2017.

Is it legal to fly a homemade jetpack in the U.S.?

It depends on whether it fits FAA Part 103: one person, under 254 pounds empty, a tank of 5 gallons or less, a top speed of 55 knots, daylight only and never over crowds. This is not legal advice, so ask the FAA.

Why do homemade jetpacks hop instead of fly?

In the videos I read, one engine failing tips the whole rig, the control software had bugs, and heat and fuel sat close to the body. Company machines add more engines, a flight computer and pilot training.

Are the "how to build a jetpack" videos fake?

The two homemade rigs I read about are real machines, but a title like "actually flies" can overpromise. The Science Channel segment is a narrated explainer about a pack a company built, not a tutorial.

What is the safest way to make a jetpack at home?

A costume. The Instructables "DIY Jet Pack" uses plastic bottles, cardboard and cups, and its authors note that a real jetpack is hard to make both powerful and safe to wear.

How can I try a real jet suit instead?

Gravity Industries sells flight experiences, and first flights are tethered. The details and the prices I read are in my jet suit guide.

Sources

Marcos Salles

Marcos Salles

Founder and editor, Novaverum

I write Novaverum to separate the technology you can really buy from the demos, concepts and viral fakes, starting from what the companies, regulators and engineers publish. Every article lists its sources at the end.

How I write

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