Aérospatiale Ludion

The Ludion, officially the SA-610, was a one-man rocket-powered hopper conceived in France in the early 1960s as a way for a soldier to cross rivers, trenches and minefields without a bridge. It was little more than a seat with a pair of downward-pointing augmented rocket tubes beside the pilot, steered by a small control stick in each hand that deflected the exhaust. Sud Aviation won the development contract in 1965, working with Bertin on the jet pumps and with SEPR on the propulsion, and the machine was later produced by Aérospatiale. It first ran on the ground in January 1968 and completed dozens of tethered flights and a handful of free flights before military interest faded and the work ended. A prototype survives on public display at the Musée de l'air et de l'espace in France.