Is a near $1m grant to a Kiwi jetpack company a good investment?

Glenn Martin's one-man jet uses a car-style engine to drive fans that create blasts of air. Photo / Supplied

Opinion

A Kiwi inventor believes his real-life jetpack will repay a near $1 million investment by taxpayers "twenty-fold" as he lines up customers around the world.

Glenn Martin, of Christchurch, created an international sensation when he exhibited his Martin Jetpack at America's biggest consumer airshow, EAA Airventure in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in July.

Now his company's work is to receive a $968,430 boost from the government's Foundation for Research, Science and Technology.

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