"Iron Man"-Like Suit Possible in Near Future?

[Yoon]

For those that were wowed by suit in the recent blockbuster movie Iron Man, similar technology might be here sooner than you think. DailyTech has posted a two-part article on the latest advances in Iron Man-like technology.

DailyTech - Building An "Iron Man" Pt. I: Military Grade Exoskeleton
DailyTech - Building An "Iron Man" Pt. II: Jet-powered, Winged Flight

Some quotes:

While athletic, Sarcos engineer Rex Jameson, standing at 5'11" is no superman. While he can press a modest 200 lbs on a good day, his strength is by no means superhuman. Until he puts on the Sarcos Suit that is. Gripping the claw-like hand guides of the exoskeleton, Jameson recently ripped off dozens of 500 lb presses at a recent demonstration of the suit.

I guess the 'super-human' strength part is covered.

The boots allow the user to run at up to 22 mph, with little fatigue, yet are delicate enough to climb stairs quickly. They also get 70 MPG. The boots are powered by tiny diesel/gas burning pistons. They can carry 1/3 of a cup of fuel and propel the user 3 miles. Using the boots, you can also jump much higher than the standard man.

Sounds like the Super Boots in Metroid.

The jet features carbon fiber wings spanning 2.5 m, with four mini jet engines using kerosene fuel. The engines have reached speeds of 190 MPH over the Swiss Alps, after a 8,000 ft jump out a plane.

The wings helped him fly for over 4 minutes, landing by parachute. Rossy describes it in French stating, roughly, "It's like there's a big handle in your back, and the good Lord takes you by it and shoves you through the air, it's fantastic!!"

Looks like flight isn't impossible either.

It would be incredible to see if these three components combined in a single suit in the near future.

[Jaegar]

Saw the exoskeleton in popular science... Saw the wings on the internet already...

Ooooooh Haven't seen the boots or new jetpack. The rocket boots look like they're great for increased speed over distance but they don't do much for sprinting speed. I wonder how much better that design can get. Maybe if they increased the power and reduced the length...

The jetpack and jet boots are even cooler O.o 9 minute flight time?! I hadn't heard anything about jetpacks getting more than a minute. I wonder what would happen if they combined the Go Fast jetpack with the rigid winged jet setup...

Wow... This really is starting to sound like Iron Man. You get the jetpack engine to power the suit systems systems as well as provide thrust then add a slightly lighter powered frame with the rocket boots and collapsible wings... lol wearable jet O.o The added weight of the wings and frame would reduce the flight time but if it's 9 minutes of flight to begin with and the powered frame has 30 minutes of self contained power that's still enough for crazy awesomeness.

The question is ho long till it happens. Now that I think about it this makes me think of Bubblegum Crisis too. Hmmm this article doesn't mention the Japanese version of the powered frame either. I guess who perfects the powered suit first will determine who we get XD Iron Man or The Knight Sabers rofl

[longshin]

I saw the Exoskeleton in CNN, its quite interesting how science progresses.
Its kinda sad that they were thinking of following the development of the suit for military purposes.
Although I liked how they were thinking to use that suit for helping daily work in life easier, it would be awesome if they could improve it to help handicapped people recover their old lifestyle.

[Jaegar]

I like the labor applications too. Lifting 50+ pound masonry block with ease = yay

I just had to help my day move something like 800 pounds of decorative stone border pieces ._.