Mr Martin (48) told the New York Times he had spent 27 years developing the "world's first practical jetpack" and planned to start selling them for $US100,000 ($NZ135,980) next year.
His showcase is the EAA AirVenture, a big air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Mr Martin said though several jetpacks had been built, none had flown for longer than one minute, while his design, patented in New Zealand in 2005, could run for 30 minutes.
For Mr Martin, the jetpack is the culmination of a dream that began as a 5-year-old in Dunedin.
For those who still remember childhood dreams of flying and comic-book visions of the 21st century, the jetpack suggests the possible fulfillment of the yearning for those long-promised gifts of technology.
Rather than being a jet engine burning propellant, it is a couple of noisy rotors, similar to those in a hovercraft, attached to an engine and capable of being steered.
"Mr Martin has somehow made the future look both sleek and nerdy," the New York Times reported.
The "shrouded propellers" are powered by a 200 horsepower piston engine, running on petrol"If someone says, `I'm not going to buy a jetpack until it's the size of my high-school backpack and has a turbine engine in it', that's fine," Mr Martin said. "But they're not going to be flying a jetpack in their lifetime."
Mr Martin began his design while studying biochemistry at university and later working in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
By 1997, seven weeks after the birth of his second child, Mr Martin promoted his wife, Vanessa, to test pilot and fired up the device she calls "the beast".
She said the moment it seemed to "bite" and grab the air for liftoff was exciting.
"That was it," she said.
"I was totally addicted. It was probably the best experience of my life".
On a later prototype, Mr Martin last year enlisted his son Harrison, then 15, as a test pilot and used the working jetpack to raise venture capital and quit his day job.
The version he is launching in Oshkosh is his 11th, weighs about 113kg and provides 272kg of thrust.
It has a small parachute, which can be rapidly deployed with a small explosive charge like a car airbag.
The weight of the engines and body of the flier sits lower than the rotors to avoid it toppling and powering into the ground.
"We think we have done a lot to make this by far the safest jetpack ever built," Mr Martin said.
So far, none of the 12 people who has flown the jetpack has taken it higher than 2m, but Mr Martin plans to take it up to 150m within six months.
