Jetpack Test Flight #1 : Success!

You read that right.  I said jetpack.

A couple of summers ago, Mr. Hank Schimstock (shown above) stumbled across a three-fer deal of Electrolux vacuum cleaners at a rummage sale.  One he generously polished up, and I use it for my housework.  The other two went in the barn and proceeded to get lost in amongst the thrifted furniture and swapmeet car parts.  He joked that they would be perfect for a jetpack.  I rolled my eyes and forgot about the whole thing.

Fast forward to last month when the Oshkosh Public Museum put out a facebook call for any and all ray guns in the Greater Wisconsin area.  Ray guns?  This warranted more investigation.  Come to find out that they are busily working away on a Steampunk Exhibit scheduled to open this summer.  They were asking for masterfully crafted guns to be submitted for consideration.  I forwarded it on to Hank as a 'here might be fun project' idea.  Well, let me tell you, the whole thing has exploded.

Hank jumped on it.  Immediately on the hunt for brass, any brass and lots of it, he quickly commandeered the kitchen fruit bowl for his supply cache.  Coming home from work, he'd empty his pockets of horseshoes, candlesticks, bits of wire and tubing.  Upon the requisition of the vacuum tube, he finally declared that he was ready to build.

After a few days of fitting, soldering, carving, reshaping and polishing, the multi-phasal radical di-optitron was done.  You took your life in your hands if you dared to walk thru a doorway without checking first.  Hank was there, around the corner, drawing a bead on your chest, with a wicked grin on his face. 

He had way to much fun working on this project.  Enter the jetpack.

After we were all excited and calling our friends, trying to convince them to build ray guns, the museum put out another call for Steampunk gadgets, accessories, clothing, whatever people wanted to loan to the exhibit.  We knew that they wouldn't take just any ole thing that we threw together.  It needed to be visually exciting (translation: shiny) yet seemingly functional (translation: lots of tubes).  And those two old, dusty Electroluxes sitting in the barn were just the ticket. 

Hank fitted them onto a frame from a Swiss Army rucksack.  He added a fuel source and the appropriate connections.  Exhaust cones were key for optimal performance as were carefully aligned ailerons.

Flight is controlled by a single, hand-held  input which routes signals directly into the twin, cold-atom inter-reactors. Peak performance is reached at 40 kilotrins.  At 60 kilotrins the inter-reactors go unstable.  That can get pretty ugly.

For display purposes, because honestly, this is going in our dining room, Hank built a floor stand using a large gear from our old manure spreader.  

We waited for a day when the weather was calm and clear, and Hank took it out for a test flight.  It was a little cold blooded at first, but once the inter-reactors settled in at 20 kilotrins, it was good to go.  He took one easy lap around the barnyard before opening it up and then did a low pass over the pasture.  The sheep were less than impressed with his new piece of "farm machinery."

Both the ray gun and jetpack were submitted to the museum for consideration, and we're pleased to announce that they've been chosen for the exhibit!  They are currently in a promotional display at the museum, with the full exhibit opening on June 8th.

To those with a more experience eye, this may seem a little more farmpunk than steampunk, what with the vacuum cleaners, horseshoes and manure spreader parts.  Now obviously, farmpunk was a natural choice, given our rural lifestyle.  And we've only begun to explore and define our version of that style.  But steampunk is just a short step off the farm, and I've always been in love with bustle dresses.  We couldn't pass up this opportunity.  However, I can't really leave out dieselpunk either as the era that could really fit seamlessly in the Homestead.  I mean, as we speak, there sits in the barn a two-seat roadster that Hank could oh-so-easily convert to dieselpunk.  And how much would I love to start a sewing a tailored wool skirt suit with matching leather vest and fedora?  I'll tell you, a lot!

In short Hank and I enjoy many of the '-punk' genres.  If you'd like to read more, check out wikipedia for a complete run down of your options.  We'll keep you posted on the news from the Oshkosh Museum as the exhibit nears completion.

But don't let your guard down...you never know where Hank will be next!