If you thought Iron Man’s flight was just for sci-fi, you’ll want to check out the guest speaker at Paxton School last week from UK based company Gravity, where they have developed a jet suit that literally allows mankind to fly. Yes, you read that right.

Sam Rogers, a pilot for Gravity, showed a group of 8^th grade science students the groundbreaking technology via teleconference from across the pond last week. The jet suit includes jets on each arm and one larger jet on the back that allows the suit to travel up to 70 miles per hour. Students were treated to a tour of the design workshop at Gravity headquarters where Rogers emphasized the role that the engineering design process has played in the different iterations of the jet suit as the team has repeatedly re-designed and retested the suit to improve performance.

After showing students how many parts of the jet suit are created through 3D printing, including arm mounts and the electronic housing, Rogers, who is an additive design lead at Gravity, encouraged students to try their hand at engineering their own ideas through 3D printing. “I encourage you to really try out 3D printing,” he said. “You can design anything you want, test it, and iterate it until you get what you want.”

A huge thank you to Rogers and Gravity for sharing this phenomenal technology and inspiring our students do EPIC things!

This week, Mrs. Hall's Humanities class as Paxton presented their Egyptian projects to the rest of the school. Other classes were able to come through the halls and view the Humanities students in Egyptian clothing and their artwork. submitted by Kalli McMillan