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Did Elon Musk Meet With The Pentagon Regarding An ‘Iron Man’ Flying Suit?

By Plutarc Sicat
Published on: 06:46 PST, Jun 10, 2016

Elon Musk showed up at the Pentagon on Wednesday, June 8, apparently summoned by the U.S. military top command regarding building a flying suit similar to that worn by Iron Man. Whether or not the news is true, what is staggering is that the story was covered by virtually every media organization around the world: Gizmodo, the Verge, Time, the Daily Mail, Complex, CNBC, Mashable, ZME Science, Gizmodo India, Techworm, Entrepreneur, Defense News, and eNews Park Forest.

And even funnier is that most of these news outfits have essentially said the same thing: The U.S. military summoned Elon Musk to build a kind of Iron Man suit, but then again, maybe not. The news seems to have germinated from a reply tweet by Musk when asked why he showed up at the Pentagon. The reply was actually made half-jokingly. Nonetheless, it became very clear that Elon Musk is very much aware of often being likened to the fictional Marvel superhero. Furthermore, he actually likes such comparison or at least he’s amused by it.

Here’s the actual tweet.

The Verge may yet have the best explanation regarding what actually transpired during Wednesday’s meeting between Elon Musk and the Pentagon.

“But of course, there are plenty of non-Iron-Man-related reasons that Musk might be chatting with the folks at the Pentagon. Tech innovation is something the Department of Defense is keenly interested in, and in March this year, it even created a new advisory board to tap innovation from the private sector, headed by Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt.”

The source further explains that the board wants to recruit 12 individuals “who have successfully led large private and public organizations, and excelled at identifying and adopting new technology concepts.”

For its part, Time debunks that theory that the subject of the Iron Man suit even came up during the Elon Musk meeting with the Pentagon. It posits that exoskeleton suits already exist. In fact, the writer insists that he has already worn one.

Here’s what was said on the matter.

“This is pretty clearly a joke. Defense Department spokesperson Peter Cook told CNN that Carter has been speaking with figures in the tech community to find out what’s going on in the world of innovation. The department has been collaborating with the tech industry more closely recently — it began recruiting experienced and vetted hackers to test the government’s cybersecurity systems in April.”

Still, the fact remains that the technology for the Iron Man suit still does not exist. An exoskeleton can double up for a construction worker, as Time would have it. But for it to take off or to be virtually indestructible, that technology is still light years away, and that is why the world still needs Elon Musk.

As Time admits in its exoskeleton article, “If Ekso’s [company that designed the exoskeleton] new suit has any drawbacks, it’s that it was tough to move around while wearing it. So it’s not quite an Iron Man suit just yet.”

As the whole world knows by now, only Elon Musk holds the record for having a rocket do a job in outer space and then return to Earth at the precise location intended. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO already proved it three times with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, as the Huffington Post has reported.

Still, the technology is in its infancy, as Musk himself admits. There’s still a long way to go before the exoskeleton can be attached to a reusable rocket in order to make the suit fly. Right now, the only thing that exists is the roadrunner strapped with a dynamite on its back.

Regarding what was exactly discussed between Elon Musk and the U.S. military complex, no one will probably know for sure. That is unless, of course, Musk spills the beans. It was a closed-door meeting, wasn’t it? So it’s probably best to leave it at that. Otherwise, we won’t see the end of this discussion. Elon Musk will probably manage to colonize Mars before any definitive conclusion can be arrived at. Robert Downey Jr., do you copy?

[Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images]

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