Experimental
wearable engineering.
An Iron Man-inspired program exploring wearable systems, robotics, and potential powered flight. The hard part is not thrust; micro-turbines can lift a person today. The hard parts are control, because a body in flight needs six axes corrected faster than a human can, and physiology, because the human inside starts losing vision around 4 g. These pages lay out the problem honestly: concepts, design targets, prototypes and tested results, kept apart.
Tap a component. See what it does and what controls it.
Each hardware component is paired with the control function the flight controller would own. The component list is a design concept; specifications are supplier data or targets, and each card says which.
The 3D figure is a placeholder body model, not the MK-I design. Hotspots mark intended mounting locations.
Keep the pilot conscious.
G-induced loss of consciousness kills fighter pilots who have G-suits, training and a reclined seat. A standing pilot in a suit has none of that by default, so the design has to add all of it, plus a controller that unloads before a human could. No system can guarantee a pilot never blacks out. The goal is to make it as unlikely as engineering allows and survivable if it happens. The simulator below is a concept model of that logic, built on published physiology. It has not been validated against a real pilot or a real suit.
Tolerance figures are conservative published ranges for a healthy, trained adult. Individual tolerance is lower when tired, dehydrated, hung over, sick or scared. Full physiology →
Run the numbers
Toy models with stated constants. Good enough to argue with, not good enough to fly on, and not a substitute for the hardware-in-the-loop simulation planned in Phase 0.
✈ Flight physics
⚡ Electrical budget ·
Proposed priority order: life support → flight computers → flight actuators → sensors → everything else. Numbers are a budget, not measurements.
🗺 Mission profile · what a first full sortie would look like
🛡 Damage model · concept
Human pilot vs flight controller (design)
| Human | Controller, as designed | |
|---|---|---|
| Conscious decisions | ~5 per second | Inner loop target ≥ 500 Hz |
| Reaction time | 200–300 ms | Sensing in ms; actuation limited by gimbals (~40 ms) and engine spool (~3 s) |
| Axes controlled at once | 2, with training | 6 degrees of freedom + 5 engines (thrust allocation to be built) |
| Notices own blackout | No. By definition. | Design: eye-tracker, ECG, head accelerometer, control-input coherence |
| Flies while pilot is unconscious | No | Design goal: level, hold 1 g, automated landing. Unbuilt. |
Where HQ fits: Hylaq Quantum is local-first, on-device intelligence research. It is a candidate for the supervisory layer of this controller, never the inner loop, and nothing about it is a validated aircraft control system.
Limits the controller would enforce
| Sustained G | +6 g upright · +8 g prone · −2 g |
| Onset rate | ≤ 3 g/s commanded |
| Speed | 250 km/h (visor, windblast, bird-strike energy) |
| Altitude | 4,500 m unpressurised · O2 on above 3,000 m |
| Descent rate | 1.5 m/s below 20 m · 15 m/s emergency |
| Bird strike | 1 kg at 250 km/h = 2.4 kJ into the visor |
| Helmet CO | Warn 25 ppm · abort 50 ppm |
| Core temperature | Warn 38.5 °C · land 39.0 °C |
| Fuel | Land with 2 min reserve, always |
Reality check, stated once so you can trust the rest. Jet suits fly today (Gravity Industries: five turbines, 5–10 minute flights, a 137 km/h record). What does not exist: a 150 kW pocket reactor, 20 minutes of electric hover, 210° AR visors, or armor that is simultaneously light, bulletproof and cheap. And nothing in this program has been built or flown. The MK-I pages separate shipping components, engineering we have to do, and targets that need a breakthrough, and every number is a target, a published figure, or a supplier spec until a test says otherwise.
We need propulsion, controls, aerospace medicine and money.
Engineers who have run a gas turbine, control people who have tuned a real flight controller, a flight surgeon who has seen G-LOC in a centrifuge, and partners who want to fund Phase 0 and 1. Tell us which one you are.