BBC News By Bernd Debusmann Jr image captionLeigh Coates, pictured, says that flying in a jetpack is an "incredible feeling" Leigh Coates says that when you speed through the air wearing a jetpack it feels as if you are able to fly like a superhero. "It is an incredible feeling," says the retired US helicopter pilot. "You really do feel as if you can fly." "They are really difficult to use though, to begin with." Jetpacks first thrust into public consciousness around the world back in 1965, thanks to the James Bond movie, Thunderball. The super spy, then played by the late Sean Connery, is chased by gunmen onto the roof of a French chateau, from where he straps himself into his jetpack to fly off and escape.