Wednesday - May 11, 2011
The Birdman of Switzerland
Ha, I hardly even need to write a post after those headlines. But yup, Swiss airline pilot Yves Rossy has done it again, taking his strap on 6.5 foot wide delta wing and it’s 4 micro sized jet engines for a jaunt above, into, and across the Grand Canyon. This one was a bit of an illegal flight, since he didn’t file for FAA permits in time, but after recent flights crossing the English Channel and going over the Alps in his high speed bird suit, the Canyon was a walk in the park. Well, a flight in a national park.
With a pair of rockets strapped to his back, Swiss adventurer “JetMan" Yves Rossy soared over the Grand Canyon over the weekend, marking the flying man’s first U.S. flight.
Steering only with movements of his body, JetMan launched from a helicopter at 8,000 feet over the canyon and skimmed the walls of one of the America’s grandest natural formations on a sunny weekend morning, before deploying his parachute and descending to the Canyon floor.
Just don’t ask when it happened.
While a spokeswoman for the adventurer said that the flight was a success, and issued a picture of Rossy over the Grand Canyon, she could not specify what time Rossy flew, or even whether the flight was on Saturday or Sunday.
The Hualapai Tribe calls the rugged area home, and gave assent for Rossy to fly near Eagle Point on the tribe’s reservation, an event that occured days after JetMan abruptly cancelled a planned press event with little explanation.
The adventurer claimed complications with the Federal Aviation Administration led him to scrap his first flight, though a representative for the FAA told FoxNews.com that Rossy simply didn’t request a permit early enough. Indeed, the spokesman explained that the agency reached out to Rossy to warn him of the need for a permit, and struggled with how to define his jet suit—airplane or a power glider?
Rossy, who calls himself the JetMan, has rocketed above the English Channel and the Swiss Alps in his custom-built wing suit. Rossy’s jet suit averages 124 mph and has a 6.5-foot wing span; he wears it on his back, sending fuel to the four engines with a slight roll of his hand. The FAA ultimately grouped it with airplanes.
Video at the link above. More video on YouTube of other flights, here and here and here.
Pretty cool. But before you go making your own as a way to beat the morning traffic, realize that Rossy’s mini jet wing can not take off from the ground, nor can it land. He gets dropped from an airplane, does his flights, and then lands via parachute. And I kind of get the idea that his legs must get rather toasty, what with 4 paint can sized jet engines running just inches away and all. So it isn’t terribly practical, but that isn’t the point. The point is he is flying, all by himself, with just a wing strapped to his back. No seat, no cabin, no hand controls (other than a throttle, I hope!), no nothing. Until we all sprout feathers, this is as close to being eagles as people can get. And the darn thing can push him to 200kph, 300kph in a dive. Because flying is no fun if you’re just blobbing along; you want to go fast too.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/11/2011 at 07:59 AM
Filed Under: • planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles •
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