That’s right. After telling us that personal jetpacks were ‘around the corner’ since our youth, whoever is in charge of this stuff has finally pulled finger and it looks like hipsters will be flying around Woodstock in no time..

It turns out they really have been working on it since we were kids.

Check it out:

As standard gear for James Bond and Buzz Lightyear, jetpacks have long captured the public imagination as a way to dodge traffic jams and Cold War villains.

Among the world’s aviation regulators, they have been dismissed as a flight of fancy that didn’t require any special rules.

But a planned launch of a jetpack in New Zealand next year has bureaucrats scratching their heads, particularly as the machine’s makers say the thing can travel up to 7,000 feet in the air at speeds of 50 miles an hour.

“Think of it like a motorcycle in the sky,” says Peter Coker, chief executive of Martin Aircraft Co. Ltd., which has spent 30 years developing the Martin Jetpack here. The Martin jetpack is unique in that it is not rocket powered but has a gasoline engine driving twin-ducted fans. The latest P12 prototype, a far sleeker and shinier model than the earlier versions, will allow a pilot to fly for up to half an hour.

New Zealand is taking the prospect of jetpacks in its airspace seriously, even though the product’s price—more than $150,000—means that just a few dozen have been reserved. Most of those are going to overseas customers.

For Glenn Martin, 53, the inspiration for his jetpack came from watching the U.S. space program unfold in the 1960s and from animated TV shows like “The Jetsons” and a British series called “Thunderbirds.”

“Like a lot of my generation, I believed we’d be having holidays on the moon by now or going to work in our flying cars,” he says. “Unfortunately, that never happened.”

Chats with friends in a university bar prompted Mr. Martin to find out why. Swapping a cold student apartment for a warm library, he studied the physics behind jetpacks at the expense of his biochemistry class. Within months, he began work on a prototype in his garage and says he has remortgaged his house at least three times to finance its development since 1981. His two sons were sworn to silence, even when their friends asked what their father was up to.

“One time, my youngest son, William, was in trouble at school and the teacher said he’s got this vivid fantasy life because he believes you have a jetpack in your garage at home,” Mr. Martin says. “We had to get the teacher to sign a nondisclosure agreement.”

[more here]

Hmm, with a price tag over a million Rand, it will be interesting to see if anyone local signs up.

I’ll be honest, I’m tempted. It’s just a bit more expensive than Branson’s space flight.

Decisions… decisions..