Insane £24m ‘Marvel’ jet suits that armies are squabbling over

Richard Browning, 46, dreamed up the idea for the world’s first Jet Suit in his garage eight years ago – and is now preparing to sign deals worth over £24m ($30m) with two western militaries.

The former Royal Marines reservist and City oil trader went on to found Gravity Industries, a 25-person start-up that is now worth over £55 million ($70 million) and has flown at many of over 300 events in 50 different countries in his bespoke role as Founder and Chief Test Pilot.

He has also hosted private displays for Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg – but Gravity’s new professional division is opening up a new avenue for the father-of-two, reinforcing a credibility that outweighs the light derision he occasionally experienced in the early years for the Avenger associations of his ground-breaking invention.

With the state of the world as it is – wars raging in Eastern Europe and the Middle East and wider conflicts simmering just below the boiling point – the unique services offered by Browning’s body-controlled flight suit, which has jets attached to the arms and back, are more needed than ever.

“Our primary purpose was entertaining and inspiring people whilst generating revenue,” the 46-year-old tells Express.co.uk from his home in Somerset. “When we created it, it was this crazy, superhero thing, but now the technology and our reputation has got to the point where we’re able to start using it in really grown-up environments.”

He’s also keen to spread the message that innovation doesn’t have to be empty buzzword – as it can often seem to be when paraded out, wrapped in Government or corporate jargon.

Instead, a more successful and kinetic global presence for the UK could be grounded in nurturing entrepreneurship and a Silicon Valley-style ‘can do’ attitude to new ideas over what has been tried and tested, he suggests.

Any big corporation is by its nature risk averse, Browning adds, and Governments especially could use an extra energetic nudge when it comes to big ideas about the future and, on a more cautionary note, Britain’s global security in an increasingly turbulent climate.

“I think Ukraine badly woke Europe up, and made us realise that the world isn’t as safe a place as we thought it was,” he says. “It demonstrated that as much as we can say we want peace, a world leader [like Vladimir Putin] can just lie through his teeth, lull us into a false sense of security, then go ahead and do what he wants.”

Military personnel are already being trained with the Gravity Jet Suits, which will initially focus on maritime activities such as modernising the process of boarding hostile vessels and bypassing the need for a ladder or ropes dangled from a hovering helicopters.

The suits, which use small jet engines producing hot exhaust gases to lift pilots into the air, will continue their recreational use alongside Gravity’s non-profit mountain rescue arm, which allowed a paramedic to scale a Romanian mountain in just two minutes, compared to the usual two-and-a-half hours, last summer.

The 46-year-old has heard the comparisons to Elon Musk – who has also been called a real-life Tony Stark – before, but aligns himself more closely with the billionaire’s visionary creativity than his recent power plays.

“I think he’s done the most amazing things,” he says. “I do sympathise with a lot of what he and Trump are trying to do – I just dislike the way they’re going about it. Leaving a trail of bodies behind you isn’t how most business works – not in the long run anyway.”

“But the sentiment of fixing what’s not working is something I do understand. And huge businesses and organisations can move at a glacial pace and be reluctant to implement anything that’s actually new.

“It’s the asymmetric risk and reward of trying stuff. I think especially in the UK, we’re guilty of rewarding and promoting people who are a safe pair of hands over the ones who rock the boat.”

The rapid and challenging journey from his garage in 2017, when Gravity Industries was born, to the upper echelons of tech renown today have been strewn with inevitable failures, learning opportunities and career highlights, Browning emphasises.

A recent pinch-me moment was his Jet Suit flight off the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier in New York harbour wearing his old Royal Marines beret and flying the Union Jack.

“How much more British can you get?” he laughs. “It’s been a long ride to get to this point, with a lot of hard work in the background, but we did it by adopting this adversity-driven, can-do attitude.

“If people take something away from seeing what we’ve done – and what’s great is that, by its nature, it is very visual – I hope it’s that spirit of picking ourselves up, dusting ourselves off and not being afraid to try.”