JetLev
First ever hydroflight jetpack

The JetLev is a water-propelled jet pack powered through a floater derived from jetski technology attached through an umbilical to the backpack which contains two nozzles and two control arms, in a configuration like traditional rocket belts and gas turbine jet belts. The JetLev also functions underwater, allowing users to dive into the water and jet back out. The jetpack can allow users to fly up to 10 m (30 feet) above the water. It was created by Chinese Canadian, Raymond Li. JetLev became the first practical amateur-usable jet pack, and first with practical usable duration. The JetLev technology jetpack became the first commercially released jetpack in 2009. It was initially offered for sale for $100,000, however with much cheaper competitors coming on the market afterwards, inspired by the original JetLev, such as the Flyboard, prices rapidly dropped, with cheaper models.
History
Raymond Li started working on the concept in 2000. By 2003, he was seeking funding to keep developing the concept. He received a grant from the National Research Council of Canada.
“JetLev” enters the record as first ever hydroflight jetpack. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what JetLev, First and ever can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1688498. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2009, 2000 and 2003.
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This entry incorporates text from “JetLev” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.