Oversized man-children who never quite grew up rejoice, your days of zooming around via jetpack may be closer than you think.

A man in New Zealand called Glenn Martin has listed his company, Martin Aircrafts, on the Australian Stock Exchange and people the world over are taking notice. The Martin Jetpack, a project 34 years in the making and first conceived of in a shed in Dunedin, could become publicly available by 2017. Mashable reports:

The Martin Jetpack has come in leaps and bounds since the first showing in 2008. Based on current testing, it can now fly for more than 30 minutes at a speed of 74km/h and an altitude up to 1,000 metres (3,000 ft.) with or without a pilot strapped into it.

Having initially seen his jetpack garner negative reactions after a showing in 2008 Martin bounced back and managed to raise $27 million during the Initial Public Offering (IPO), money which will be poured into making the jetpack available commercially.

Of course this little ripper won’t come cheap and is expected to set consumers back about (Australian) $250 000 (R2.25 million). Then again, can you really put a price on heading home after work and zooming over the traffic screaming ‘so long, suckers’?

[source:mashable]