When you think of jetpacks , your first thought is in all probability an image of some fun , care - free part of pop culture likeThe JetsonsorJames Bond . Or maybe even theSuper Bowl . But jetpacks were serious business for the U.S. war machine in the 1960s . And , trust it or not , there were plenty of futuristic ideas that involve deploying jetpacks on the battlefield in Vietnam .
Bell Aerosystems develop a provision document in 1967 that laid out how the company suppose that jetpacks ( a course of study of military vehicle that they called a Light Mobility System or LMS ) could be used in fight . Bell , a contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense , had been working on the Bell Rocket Belt for class , and after 3,000 flight it had developed a new jetpack - similar gimmick call the Jet Belt in 1968 .
Much like so many other military engineering , the first estimate demo for Bell ’s Jet Belt was for purpose in reconnaissance . former drone and robotic vehicle had like use of goods and services before they became weaponized . The futurist jetpack , accord to theBell report , “ presents a small , fast fair game , capable of evasive maneuvers . ”
“ This organisation is capable of operating over a keen distance in less clock time than is potential with the primer reconnaissance patrol , ” the paper from 1967 read . “ It would provide a more reactive means of determine and verifying intelligence which can not be hold as rapidly by high-pitched - level resources . Included are missions such as providing point and flank surety for moving component . ”
An exemplification from the report tag “ Reconnaissance or Hit - and - Run Missions ” imagine U.S. servicemen landing on the beaches of Vietnam .
The account noted that if soldier operating reconnaissance mission missions were to be armed they ’d have to be carrying weapons that had as little backlash as potential . presumptively , too much kicking would cause a soldier to spin wildly in the air travel .
Aside from reconnaissance mission , Bell also imagined that these jetpacks would be utile for so - call psychological operation . The report said that the LMS could disseminate brochure , be used to well transmit propaganda equipment like tuner and motion picture projector , and also be used to broadcast propaganda from aeriform loudspeakers fitted onto the flying machines themselves . The classic 1979 movie Apocalypse Now feature helicopters traveling over Vietnam playing “ Ride of the Valkyries . ”
While the picture show is fiction , music was sometimes used by Americans on the battlefield to jumble the foe . That scene sure would have played otherwise in the theatre if the medicine was coming from a fleet of George Jetsons .
The news report highlights other benefits of a jetpack system in warfare , such as the ability to speedily escape enemy forces and its potential use in search and rescue missions . But it did n’t guess that this futuristic tech would just be defensive . Page 22 of the story gets to how the jetpack would be used in an violation capacitance .
From the report card :
A large figure of scout group could be positioned on or near the objective prior to the foe recovering from the propaedeutic attack . The speed and aggressiveness of the assault would maximise the surprisal and jar to the defend troops . The LMS could provide the mobility call for to unmortgaged buildings and built - up areas of foeman force .
Due to the shortsighted grasp , navigational assistance should neither be involve nor would it be hardheaded during the rape . Communications may be needed to maintain tight control and initiate any maneuver change .
The LMS can be used in connection with the movement of and the target location for armored whole .
In an illustration with the subtitle “ rape from Offshore Ships , ” we see a mock - up of troops contain their rifles into battle as they zip to prop using jetpacks .
The reputation emphasizes the welfare of “ hit and extend ” attacks , as well as the use of feints — flying and circumscribed attacks that are used principally to disorder the enemy from the main attack that would happen somewhere else . The report explains that “ the speed and mobility would let immediate disengagement and prevent extended flack fights with impregnable elements . The most opportune time can be used for withdrawal or redirection of the onrush . ” And that all make sensory faculty . Because if you want to draw attention to something meant as a distraction , why not call up the Rocketeer ?
The written report also explains that jetpacks would be not bad for use of goods and services in chemical substance and biologic warfare , something that the U.S. engage in regularly throughout the Vietnam War withAgent Orangeand other chemicals , despite ethical business organization .
The LMS would be utilitarian for small - scale chemical substance mission such as riot control federal agent legal transfer or laying smoke screen door . The usance of tear gas in counterinsurgency surgical operation has proven to be quite successful and the LMS would , provide a speedy responsive and accurate delivery system .
The jet turbine locomotive can easily be accommodate to work as an efficient fly smoke generator . Here again we would have a rapid response system adequate to of screening little graduated table crusade .
These operations may be within scope of enemy fire . If the radius of surgical operation is small navigation assistance may not be require , however , movement to the sphere of operation may require navigational assistance . Communications may be required for coordination and guidance .
By the closing of the report , it becomes clean that the jetpack is n’t just suppose for the Vietnam War , something that would n’t terminate until 1975 , eight full long time after the publication of this written document . Bell imagined that the jetpack had electric potential to be used in all state of war of the future , include what the report describes as a potential “ Nuclear War in Central Europe . ”
A two - page exemplification visually highlight the versatility of this military organization of tomorrow — from its use for medical evacuation to its ability to do something as simple yet critical as laying cable across a river .
As far as we sleep with , jetpacks were never try in a fight billet in Vietnam . But there were plenty of other futuristic ideas that were still to come . For example , the U.S. military spent over $ 3 million per year in the recent 1960s and early seventies on data-based weather condition - control programs in Vietnam in an movement to cause landslide and lap out river crossings . CalledOperation Popeye , its succeeder was mixed , but it show that the Americans would halt at nothing , even manipulate the weather , to nullify allow frustration — something that we now know was decipherable to Defense Secretary Robert McNamara as early as 1965 .
The U.S. also spend rough $ 1 billion per year from 1968 until 1973 on a futuristic programme calledOperation Igloo White . The idea was to create a “ virtual fence ” using high - tech monitors and drones to attack the North Vietnamese . And while it was a colossal nonstarter , it did lead to technologies that would eventually be brought back to the U.S. to be used along the U.S.–Mexico borderline .
The warfare always comes home . But since jetpacks are hinder by the pauperization for a enormous amount of fuel for a very special flight of steps ( a job that persists today ) the jetpack never made it home to America . you could bet that agencies like DARPA have n’t turn over up just yet . What ’s quondam is new again in state of war , whether it’sdrones , driverless car , orhallucinogenics .
[ Bell Systems Report ]
FuturismpaleofutureVietnam
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