'Thirty seconds is not sufficient to be considered a flight' — FAA spokesman Les Dorr

He was quoted thus in yesterday's most entertaining Wall Street Journal front page story by Ben Worthen about the always just around the corner/"real soon now" jetpack, now in its fifth decade of development with widespread deployment nowhere in sight.

Good thing Dorr wasn't the decider back on December 17, 1903 on the beach at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, where the Wright Brothers achieved powered flight (top) — the first one lasting precisely 12 seconds as it covered 120 feet.

FunFact from the article: "The danger and expense have kept the ranks of jetpack pilots to an elite few. Only 13 people are known to have flown jetpacks without a line connecting them to Earth."