Two Martin Jetpacks for sale, both with a $1 reserve ... but there's just one problem. Video / Martin Aircraft
If it's always been your dream to own a Martin Jetpack, you're in luck: The liquidators for the failed Martin Aircraft have put two up for auction on Trade Me, each with a $1 reserve.
There's only one problem: neither will fly. Both have several missing parts, and Martin Aircraft lost its CAA test flight certification during its dying days - meaning it would be illegal to fly them even if you could cobble together components.
Still, indications are they could fetch a good price from an aviation enthusiast who wants to put them on display.
These are actually the third and fourth jetpacks to go on sale since Martin went into liquidation last year, following a long downward spiral.
Two others also went on Trade Me, with a $1 reserve (via Skylarc Asset Realisation, which is also handling the current sale). Again, neither was flyable.
Skylarc Asset Realisation's Sam Brown with one of the two Martin Jetpacks up for sale. Photo / Supplied
One sold for $158,200 last November to Dean Graham - son of the late Mainfreight cofounder Neil Graham, who said he planned to install it in his "man cave" (Graham was also in the news a few months earlier for spending $10,000 on a cardboard "Lamborghini" on the auction site in a Starship Children's Hospital fundraiser); he later resold it for $2000, donating the proceeds to a mental health charity.
The other went to MOTAT, with the museum paying $37,600.
Martin Jetpack was the brainchild of Christchurch man Glenn Martin, who started development in his garage in the 1980s.
Despite some promising, YouTube-friendly test flights, the startup never managed any commercial sales.
It was delisted from the ASX in 2017 amid a cash crunch and laid off nearly all of its 100 staff in 2018.
The company, which had run down its cash reserves following a $24 million loss, told investors in 2017 that the Martin Jetpack Rotron RT1200 engine needed a complete stripdown and maintenance after just 10 hours of flight - well short of the 1500 hours that is standard for small aircraft.
The firm said it needed $50m to develop a better engine. No one came forward with the capital.
Fund manager Lance Wiggs said another key problem was that Martin had not been able to find a market for its jetpack. Rich private buyers faced safety and insurance issues; the Martin Jetpack's inability to operate in high winds made it unsuitable for a lot of search and rescue work, and the military market had come to be dominated by un-manned drones.
Founder Glenn Martin was long gone before the collapse. He quit in 2015, just three months after the IPO on the ASX, in a spat over commercial direction.
Angry retail investor Ralf Rodl - a Sydney-based former Qantas pilot - told the Herald he had invested his life savings in Martin Aircraft shares, and lost it all when the firm collapsed.
This morning, Rodl said he was amazed that the auctions described the jetpacks as an "iconic invention", given their failure.
"There's not a single mention about all of the trusting investors who lost their money - in my case, life savings of A$1.24m," he said.
Grant Thornton's second liquidators' report, issued in October last year, listed no secured creditors.
