Finally! The Ion-Propelled, Remotely-Powered Jet Pack!

this and the following item from a site I just discovered, gizmag.com:

Simple ion-propulsion craft, such as those shown in these videos, can be easily built and are thus often a popular science fair project for students.

The PFS patent adds a few key elements to this well-established technology; most importantly a new design for the capacitative thrust plates that emit and receive the electrical charges, and a system that pre-conditions the air between and around the plates to maximize thrust. The company also plan to remove the heavy power pack from the vehicle and "broadcast" pulses of DC power to the vehicle from ground stations based on theories from Nikola Tesla, the famous inventor and physicist responsible for the AC power system in the early 20th century.

PFS claim their ion-propulsion personal flight vehicles will be safer than helicopters or rockets, with their massive moving parts and explosive gases respectively. Ion propulsion, however, carries its own set of risks - particularly an elevated risk of throat and lung cancer if an individual is to breathe in too much ionized air - although this can be mitigated through a number of techniques.

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The Inventor PFS is a start-up by Scott Redmond, a San Francisco-based tech executive and self-described "venture solutionist." While nobody talks his abilities and achievements up quite like Redmond's own webpage ("superhero-like ability" is quite a statement!), he is unquestionably an overachiever.

His recent projects have been focused on green, sustainable and new energy, including sustainable and self-powered homes like his NowHouse demo home, various electric vehicles and hydrogen power patents. He's also been active in virtual reality and a host of other areas. Clearly a brilliant man, Redmond suffers from a strange form of dyslexia that leaves him unable to aurally process numbers, sequences, times or time spans. to overcome this obstacle he developed a visual system of mathematics he calls "organic math" which has clearly been more than sufficient for him.