With Jetpack and Jetman, who needs Superman?

Martin Aircraft Company's jetpack, which hovered in the sky for around 10 minutes and flew at an altitude of 5,000 feet before parachuting down on May 21, and Jetman Yves Rossy, could soon make ordinary mortals give Superman a run for his money.

Martin Aircraft Company showed off its latest prototype called Martin Jetpack on May 21 at Canterbury Plains, New Zealand. The jetpack hovered in the sky for around 10 minutes and flew at an altitude of 5,000 ft before parachuting down from an altitude of 2000 ft.

Glenn Martin the founding director and inventor of Martin Jetpack had spent 30 years, investing $12 million in savings and venture capital so that he can commercialize the jetpack.

Glenn took 30 years to develop the jetpack, conducting over 2500 successful test flights. In 2010, Time Magazine had ranked the jetpack as a one of the 50 Best Inventions of the year.

This successful test brings the future another step closer, Glenn said after May 21's experiment.

Earlier this month, a Swiss pilot Yves Rossy, called the Jetman, zoomed in the sky like a speeding bullet. He was fitted with human-sized jet-propelled wings. However, this is not the first time Rossy flew - he began flying since 2006 and the jetwings the former military pilot used earlier this month was the result of 10 years of development and after 15 prototypes.

The concept of Martin Jetpack and Rossy's jet-propelled wings are different, however. The wing span of Rossy's flying device is 6.56 feet. It weighs 121 lb with fuel and 66 lb without fuel. It averages 124 mph and can fly for about 10 minutes.

Compared to Jetman, Martin Jetpack has wingspan of 5.5 ft. It weighs 250 lb without fuel and 535 lb with fuel. Its average flying speed does not exceed 63 mph but can fly for 30 minutes.

While Rossy's jetwings uses kerosene, which is widely used to power jet-engined aircraft and some rockets, Martin Jetpack uses common gas as fuel.

The jetpack will be sold commercially for $100,000. Though it is slower than Jetman because it is vertical take-off and landing aircraft, it is more stable and it does not require training or experience to fly it.

Who needs Superman when we got the Jetman and Martin Jetpack, eh?

Check out the videos below:

Martin Jetpack

Jetman Yves Rossy