Welcome to Time Machines, where we offer up a selection of mechanical oddities, milestone gadgets and unique inventions to test out your tech-history skills. Born out of sci-fi cinema, pulp literature ...

Thirty-six years later, the Bug basks in newfound acclaim while the Rocket Belt remains a minor footnote to aviation history. Built by Bell Aerospace of Buffalo, New York, only a scant few of the ...

And now a page from our "Sunday Morning" Almanac: April 20th, 1961, 53 years ago today . . . the day a man on Earth took a giant leap for mankind. For that was the day Harold Graham made the first ...

When the Space Year 2000 rolled around I was there ready with my silver jumpsuit and my food pills, waiting for the future. It seems I wasn't the only one. The only missing piece in my Jetsons future ...

For the first time in nearly a decade, pieces of the infamous rocket belt, the focus of a long-running saga of killing, kidnapping and extortion, appeared in a Harris County courtroom in August. Today ...

Atlas Obscura on Slate is a blog about the world’s hidden wonders. Like us on Facebook, Tumblr, or follow us on Twitter @atlasobscura. Test pilot Bill Suitor was getting ready to fly. Wiping the sweat ...

Apollo lunar surface exploration was a race against time. The Lunar Module (LM) carried only so much cooling water for its avionics, only so much breathing oxygen and carbon dioxide-absorbing lithium ...

The Bell rocket belt captured the world's imagination when it was featured in the 1965 James Bond movie Thunderball. Now, the folks at Jet Machines Extreme (JME) are designing a modern version not ...

One of the films at Sundance that flew under the radar this year was jetpack fantasy Pretty Bird, based on the book The Rocketbelt Caper. The film is billed as a comedy, but the real story is both ...

An artist's rendition of what the two Radiation Belt Storm Probe spacecraft will look like in space. The Radiation Belt Storm Probes Mission, part of NASA's Living With a Star program, will provide ...

A partner in the creation of a rocket belt that has flown once publicly has until next week to turn it over to a state district court or be fined and jailed. State District Judge John Wooldridge said ...

“It’s a Rocket Belt, honey. I’m outa here.” “But what about your house, your family?” “Ha! Those were just a facade, a means to procure my Rocket Belt. Good-bye!” 10 Seconds Later… “Doesn’t hold much ...