Yves Rossy: First Human to Sustain Jet-Packed Flight
Uploaded with Comments by BreitlingOfficial
May 16, 2011
Global Flying Sensation Completes His First Successful Flight in the U.S.
GRAND CANYON WEST, ARIZONA (May 10, 2011) -- It was his date with destiny, and ultimately the uniquely complex certification process could not prevent Yves "Jetman" Rossy from making his historic flight through Grand Canyon West this past weekend.
Flying his jet-propelled wing attached to his back, and steering only by movement of his body, Rossy launched from a helicopter at 8,000 feet into the breathtaking blue of the Grand Canyon sky. Skimming the rockscape at speeds of up to 190 mph, Jetman sustained flight for more than eight minutes, 200 feet above the rim of Grand Canyon West. To end the flawless precision flight, Rossy deployed his parachute and gracefully descended to the canyon floor.
An earlier flight scheduled for Friday, May 6 was cancelled when final FAA certification was held up due to the difficulty in classifying Mr. Rossy's one-of-a-kind jet-powered wing. By the time the process was complete, sufficient practice flights were unable to occur prior to the scheduled 9 a.m. flight.
"My first flight in the U.S. is sure to be one of the most memorable experiences in my life, not only for the sheer beauty of the Grand Canyon but the honor to fly in sacred Native American lands," Rossy stated. "Thank you Mother Nature and the Hualapai Tribe for making my lifelong dreams come true."
Jetman has already won global acclaim for his successful jet-powered flights cross Lake Geneva and the English Channel. But this was the first time he had ever achieved his dream of flying in the purest sense in the U.S. -- and his choice of the Grand Canyon, where eagles soar, reflected the deep significance of the site both to Rossy and to the resident Hualapai people.
More Information:
www.jetman.com
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Yves Rossy (a.k.a. "Jetman")
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yves Rossy (born 27 August 1959 in Neuchtel) is a Swiss pilot, inventor and aviation enthusiast. He is the first person to achieve sustained human flight using a jet-powered fixed wing strapped to his back. This jet pack has led to his being nicknamed Jetman, Rocketman and Fusionman.
Rossy developed and built a system comprising a back pack with semi-rigid airplane-type carbon-fiber wings with a span of about 2.4 meters (7.9 ft), powered by four attached Jet-Cat P200 jet engines modified from large-model, kerosine fueled, aircraft engines. His first flight occurred in November 2006 in Bex, lasting nearly six minutes and nine seconds. Yves later successfully flew across the English Channel on 26 September 2008 in 9 minutes 7 seconds, reaching a speed of 299 km/h (186 mph) during the crossing
Later in 2008, he made a flight over the Alps, reaching a top descent speed of 304 km/h (189 mph) and a top average speed of 124 mph.
Jet-Powered Wing
In November 2009, Rossy attempted a crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar, hoping to be the first person to fly between two continents using a jet-pack. He leapt from a small plane about 1,950 m (6,500 ft) above Tangier in Morocco in the direction of Atlanterra in Spain. The flight was expected to take about a quarter of an hour but, due to strong winds and banks of cloud, Rossy ditched into the sea, to be picked up ten minutes later by his support helicopter 3 miles from the Spanish coast. He was flown to a hospital in Jerez, and later released unhurt. The Spanish Coast Guard later retrieved the jetpack (which had a parachute and a float).
On 5 November 2010, he flew a new version of his jet-powered flight system and successfully performed 2 aerial loops before landing via parachute. He launched from a hot air balloon piloted by Brian Jones at 2,400 meters (7,900 feet) and flew a total of 18 minutes before landing. The wingspan of Rossy's latest craft has been reduced to 2m.
On 7 May 2011, Rossy flew across the Grand Canyon in Arizona, after the United States Federal Aviation Administration classified his flight system as an aircraft, waived the normal 25 to 40 hours of flight testing time, and granted him permission to perform the flight.
Yves served as a fighter pilot in the Swiss Air Force, flying Dassault Mirage IIIs, Northrop F-5 Tiger IIs and Hawker Hunters. He flew Boeing 747s for Swissair.
