A jet suit for paramedics which could cut the time it takes to reach patients in remote areas has been tested in the UK. Flying medics could carry medication and equipment such as defibrillators up mountains in seconds, not minutes. English poet William Wordsworth likened himself to a cloud "That floats on high o'er vales and hills" of the Lake District in his most famous poem <em>I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud. </em>The paramedics of the Great North Air Ambulance (GNAAS) could now make Wordsworth's dream a reality. The world-first jet suit is the result of a year-long collaboration between the GNAAS and Gravity Industries, which developed and patented the technology. Gravity founder and chief test pilot Richard Browning put on the Gravity Jet Suit and flew to a simulated casualty site in Langdale Pikes in 90 seconds. It would take 25 minutes to complete the same journey on foot, so the suit opens up possibilities in emergency response. Andy Mawson, director of operations and a paramedic at GNAAS, witnessed the test flight and said the suit was awesome. “At a time in healthcare when we are exhausted with Covid and its effects, it’s important to still push the boundaries,” he said. “Our aircraft will remain a vital part of the emergency response in this terrain, as will the fantastic mountain rescue teams. But this is about looking at supplementing those resources with something completely new.” GNAAS and Gravity are now looking at the next steps in the collaboration to establish exactly how the technology could be used in practice. Jet suits may be compleely new to the GNAAS, but the prospect of harnessing their capabilities has been around for some time. In 2019, Frenchman <a href="http://French daredevil Franky Zapata completes English Channel trip on flyboard">Franky Zapata made the first-ever successful crossing of the English Channel</a> using a jet-powered flyboard. And moving from fact to fiction, in 1965's <em>Thunderball, </em>James Bond escapes from the clutches of death with a jet pack strapped to his back, while Robert Downey Jr's <em>Iron Man </em>suit makes regular use of its jet-powered capacity. Mr Mawson believes the Gravity Jet Suit has the power to create real-life superheroes. “We think this technology could enable our team to reach some patients much quicker than before,” he said. “In many cases, this would ease the patient’s suffering. In some cases, it would save their lives.” Mr Browning is, unsurprisingly, a big believer in the suit’s potential. “We are just scratching the surface in terms of what is possible to achieve with our technology,” he said.
