National Hispanic Heritage Month: Celebrating Juan Lozano #HispanicHeritageMonth

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A human almost singularly obsessed with jetpacks and making them a real reality, we celebrate Juan Lozano for today’s installment of National Hispanic Heritage Month. Mexican-born and raised, Lozano is a self-taught engineer who has been the feature of NPR clips and Motherboard episodes for his specialty mix of hydrogen peroxide-fueled jetpacks.

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The jet pack conjures up images of the Jetsons, or James Bond blasting off in the film Thunderball. But in Mexico, there is a man who believes he can bring back this obsolete technology and make it useful for everyday life.

Juan Manuel Lozano Gallegos is one of only two men in the world keeping the dream of the jet pack alive. While his version of the Rocket Belt doesn’t blast him very high, it does work. Less successful are his rocket bike and other gadgets.

Lozano is a self-taught engineer, scientist and pilot — and the designer of what was, for years, the only commercially available jet pack, or “Rocket Belt,” as he calls it.

Read more here at NPR; and if you want to see his tech in action watch this episode of Motherboard with Juan Lozano.


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