HOWTO make a kids' jetpack

Last September, Moosie made a kick-ass soda-bottle toy jetpack for a flight-obsessed toddler:

Step 1: Spray plastic bottles with plastic primer (I used Krylon Fusion). Let dry.
Step 2: Spray bottles with your favorite silver spray paint (doesn't have to be plastic specific.) Let dry.
Step 3: Adhere bottles to a piece of cardboard, approximately the width of the bottles next to each other. Let dry.
Step 4: Use ribbon to create backpack-like straps. Adhere. (I used duct tape. That shiz works for everything!)
Step 5: Cut crepe paper strips to create flames. Glue the tops of the strips to another piece of crepe paper. Let dry.
Step 6: Accordion fold the top strip of the flames. Glue to the inside of the bottle tops (which are actually the bottom of the jetpack.) Let Dry.
Step 7: Run around the house making flying sounds with your mouth (or let your kid handle this step)

Jet Pack (via Neatorama)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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robuluz

Awesome. If you can get the primer and paint in liquid form, pour a little in the bottles then shake to coat the inside, rather than painting the outside. You then have a finish that is impervious to in-flight damage.
- relawson
  
  Genius! Better make sure its “flexible” primer as well so it won’t chip when the bottle is deformed.
grimc

Looks like the next project is jet earmuffs.
http://gspirits.com/ Zod

cut the bottles to allow venting and install old computer fans in each bottle with 4-AA batteries to power the fans. This will blow the streamers automatically!
joeposts

Step 8: Release cats. CHAOS ENSUES.
- robotnik
  
  Step 9: Let dry.
professor

Alternatively, you can use full soda-bottles and add in a Menthos-dispenser… though this might only be advisable if making it for someone else’s children (or at least waiting until the wife is out of town)!
- garyg2
  
  I had that thought too; me and my boy were brainstorming about the possibility of filling an old super-soaker with cola and introducing mentos somehow… hilarity would surely ensue…
http://twitter.com/sirkowski Sirkowski

Two bottles backpack? You could probably also improvise a home made flame thrower.
http://www.raines.com/ raines

Step 8: Secure all doors/windows on upper floors and lock up all ladders that could provide access to garage roof.
IamInnocent

Someday in the future, some girlfriend or boyfriend will go ‘ahhhhh!’ and yet we are here so far from Ipanema…
Brood-X

Step 7. should be “Affix disclaimer ‘Caution: Does Not Enable Wearer to Fly.’”
- Just_Ok
  
  careful doing that. Got a nasty paper cut once putting those warning labels on.
http://twitter.com/HubrisSonic HubrisSonic

this clearly does not really work!
- http://www.xradiograph.com/ OtherMichael
  
  I dunno, I can’t see the kid’s heels, but it looks like he’s a little above the floor.
  
  ‘course, it might be shooped.
http://builtbykids.com Built by Kids

Love this!!! That kid is ready for takeoff.
Preston Sturges

Light Your Ass On Fire

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4j13TZJb6k
http://twitter.com/digitalArtform Joseph Francis

That’s cool. :)
I had mine made out of carved, painted styrofoam
http://thinkingapeblues.com/images/JUNK_IMAGES/jet_pack_2.jpg
http://thinkingapeblues.com/images/JUNK_IMAGES/JETPACK_GIRL_2.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/digitalartform/5671768902/