The inventor of an "Iron Man" jet suit has broken his own world speed record. Richard Browning, 38, has developed a futuristic space pack that allows him to fly with control and grace a few feet off the ground.

In a recent flight he achieved speeds of more than 30mph thanks to two gas turbines mounted on his lower back and a further two on each arm. Combined they generate 800 horse-power, but also give him the ability to turn with precision.

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The former Marine reservist and a group of friends started working on the project 18 months ago.

They have already received interest from both the British and US military.

However, for the time being at least, Browning maintains that the suit is little more than a big boy's toy.

He told Reuters: "At the moment I'd liken it to a high-end jet ski, I mean: what's the practical point of a jet ski? It's questionable, right? It's really about having a huge amount of fun– and this is a huge amount of fun, and an entirely different way of manoeuvring the human being around the sky.

"We had this grand vision of could you approach the challenge of human flight in an entirely different way, very much augmenting the human body rather than putting the human in a flight machine and after many, many, many iterations we've got to an awesome place.

"It's a fireproof underlayer and then a lot of padding because this journey's been all about falling over – not from very high, but that's how we've learnt and how we've made such quick progress.

"It's not taken very long for my brain to start to move and adjust my arms in a way that I'm not consciously aware of so I now just think about where I want to go and it kind of happens – a bit like riding a bike in three dimensions."

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