The suit

Gravity Industries^[1]‘ flying Iron Man jet
suit was already impressive as it was. However, with its new and
improved look, it now looks ready to take on anything that comes
its way. 

The suit was recently kitted out with a helmet-controlled shoulder-mounted pellet
rifle^[2]. It can now fly and
shoot at the smallest head inclination of its pilot. 

Engineered by James Bruton^[3], the flying suit now
looks ready for war. 

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The suit

Originally, the suit boasted a turret^[5]
that was made from a mixture of custom 3D-printed parts and sensors
that could track rotational movements.

Furthermore, it featured a two-axis gimbal that rotated from
side to side, moved forward and backward, mirroring the movement of
the pilot’s helmet. 

Thanks to @takeonGravity for
today’s video! https://t.co/hORYDfl4lo#takeongravity
#jetsuit #jetpack #airsoft pic.twitter.com/DULGoX0Vuq^{[6][7][8][9][10][11][12]}

However, when Gravity Industries wanted to add a mounted rifle
to the gimbal, this structure wasn’t working smoothly. 

Bruton then came in with his new design. The British
engineer and hacker upgraded the gimbal to feature a robust linear
actuator that smoothes the rifle’s upward and downward movements.
Bruton completely removed the side to side feature, as the rifle
ended up smacking the pilot’s helmet with each movement. 

The upgrades^[14] and the new suit were
put on display soon after, in Bruton’s video, which explains his
work as well as showing Gravity Industries’ Richard Browning
testing it out in flight. 

During the video, the team makes an effort to explain that the
new additions to the suit are purely for fun and entertainment —
nothing to do with any actual military^[15] equipment.

That’s not to say that the military wouldn’t be interested in
such a flying firing jet suit, similar to the suits by
the French army and Franky Zapata^[16], perhaps?

However, there would have to be significant changes to the
current model, if it were to become a proper fighting suit — first
and foremost, stability and range.