Vi avevamo già parlato di Yves Rossy, meglio conosciuto come Jetman o Fusionman.

E’ un simpatico pilota svizzero di 50 anni che si diverte a svolazzare libero nell’aria, con un’ala di carbonio sulle spalle, alla quale ha attaccato 4 propulsori jet di piccole dimensioni

Dopo aver sorvolato con successo il Canale della Manica circa un anno fa, ha tentato una nuova impresa: 2 giorni fa è partito dalla marocchina Tangeri diretto verso la Spagna, ma è precipitato in mare senza riportare danni. Il pilota è stato infatti prontamente recuperato dai servizi di soccorso: secondo gli organizzatori a far precipitare Rossy – a circa metà dei 15 minuti di volo previsti – sarebbero stati i forti venti.

Forza Yves, alla prossima andrà meglio!

Lucky for rocket man he can swim. Yves Rossy ended up in the ocean after attempting to fly from Africa to Europe using his jetpack. Buck Rogers rang and he wants it back !

The Swiss pilot, known as Jetman, has failed in his attempt to fly across the Strait of Gibraltar using only a jet-powered wing strapped to his back. The attempt ended with him ditching the wing and landing in the water and being rescued by a helicopter. The pilot Yves Rossy said that turbulence had caused problems on the intercontinental flight. Bigger clouds than he expected, which he couldn’t get over or round made the attempt difficult.

To infinity and beyond
Yves Rossy’s dream of flying like a bird.

For six years the airbus pilot Yves Rossy has been developing a machine that enables him to fly across the mountains at speeds up to 200 km per hour, using his body to steer. This May he presented his invention to the public. (SF1/swissinfo video)

swissinfo April 24, 2009 – 3:52 PM     Feature: “Fusionman” prepares flight over Grand Canyon
Fusionman – daredevil Swiss pilot Yves Rossy – talks to swissinfo about his new prototype wings, conquering the United States, and why the sky is the limit. … »

Remember ‘The Centurions”? The 80’s cartoon where three guys (later there were 5 of them) beamed down special suits to fight evil? Well I do. I always wanted to be Ace McCloud (and you wonder why people call me corny) – the Daring Air Specialist. He could beam down wings and weapons and soar through the skies.

Well a guy called Yves Rossy aka Fusion Man became the first man to fly using jet powered wings that are strapped to his back. Also known as Jet man, Rossy developed and built a system comprising a back pack with rigid aeroplane-type carbon fiber wings with a span of about 2.4 metres, powered by four attached jet engines modified from model aircraft engines.  Yves later successfully flew across the English Channel on 26 September 2008 in 9 minutes 7 seconds. In his jet pack he can reach speeds up to 200 kmph.

Here’s a clip of his flight on May 14th, 2008. Ace McCloud eat your heart out!

As recentes experiências do homem pássaro, o suiço Yves Rossy, mostram que o sonho de voar está mais próximo, e que deixará de ser um assunto reservado aos amantes de ficção cientifica.  A possibilidade de viajarmos pelo ar, sem necessidade de termos um avião, evitando estradas, as confusões de trânsito e não estando tão sujeitos acidentes será possível mais depressa do que pensamos (só precisaremos de ter cuidado com os cabos de alta tensão ou não chocar contra outro homem pássaro).

Eu compro um veiculo desses. Poder viajar sem estar limitado por estradas de alcatrão, poder sobrevoar caminhos diferentes todos os dias, viajar mais longe em menos tempo. Um verdadeiro sonho!

Já faltou mais para que isso aconteça. Espero ansiosamente que isso aconteça. Até lá, resta-nos continuar a sonhar!

Arnie Schwarzenegger once famously pronounced ‘I’ll be back’ in one of his Terminator movies – well I am back and this leaves me with a dilemma – my co editor and family have fulfilled their part of our ‘deal’ – they bungee jumped at Victoria Falls! Congratulations – and I am pleased to say they are all fit and well and smiling.

You must understand that as a blog which writes, reports and does all things about extreme sports we feel we are somewhat obliged to have experienced as many of the extremes about which we write as possible. My co-editor and her family, having agreed to the bungee jump, then helpfully pronounced that my part of the ‘deal’ would be to wingsuit fly! Here you should note that I was not allowed to comment and have steadfastly refused to be a party to the deal.

However in understanding that to get even close to becoming a wingsuit flyer you have to have many hours of tuition, training, practicing, parachuting and free diving I thought I could at least do a little research – please note that this in no way suggests that I accept the deal.

And the results – well it seems that we can date back the first wingsuit flyer to 1928 when Captain Anthony Rogers – otherwise known as Buck Rogers – first appeared in a sci-fi story in a popular pulp magazine. Manned flight has long been in mind – the legend of Icarus, Leonardo da Vinci’s helicopter – but it was Buck who really fired up the imagination.

Steve Kramer of the Wall Street Journal reports on a book just published called Jetpack Dreams by Mac Montandon:

‘Nevertheless, a few obsessed engineers and enthusiasts keep trying to achieve lift-off. In “Jetpack Dreams,” Mac Montandon tours this wreckage-strewn territory and sketches some of its fanatical inhabitants………

At the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, Thiokol Chemical and, most notably, Bell Aerospace, engineers inspired by Buck Rogers spent years and fortunes designing jetpacks. Then as now, the contraptions featured strap-on tanks filled with volatile fuel, usually hydrogen peroxide, that powered thrusters for propelling the pilot skyward. Then as now, most of the jetpacks flew about as well as ostriches.

The partial exception was the Rocket Belt, developed by an appealingly monomaniacal engineer at Bell Aerospace named Wendell Moore. Mr. Montandon tells this part of the story well. After Mr. Moore shattered his kneecap in a crash, he surrendered the throttle to other test pilots but kept refining the Rocket Belt. Success, when it finally arrived, was modest: In April 1961, a pilot scudded 112 feet in 21 seconds. Mr. Moore and others improved the device’s maneuverability but couldn’t extend that 21-second duration. Funding dried up.

Mr. Montandon earnestly recounts the Rocket Belt’s high points: an exhibition for President Kennedy, cameos on the TV show “Lost in Space” and in the 1965 James Bond movie “Thunderball” (“one of the most profound pop culture touchstones for jetpack junkies,” Mr. Montandon writes), and a flight at the opening ceremonies of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. The device was also popular at state fairs and sporting events.

Mr. Montandon strains to portray these 21-second displays as triumphs and the use of jetpacks in ads and videogames as significant cultural markers. But in truth his examples show the jetpack dwindling from a potentially world-shaking invention into a high-tech toy for entertaining but irrelevant stunts.’

So you see – when I read words such as ‘ostrich, shattered knee cap and wreckage strewn territory’ you will understand why I might spend quite a long time in the research department!

Of course on my return to Europe I was greeted by the very exciting news of Yves Rossy’s successful powered wingsuit flight over the English Channel – La Manche – and to keep up the spirits I have added a very good video by  Atika Shubert CNN’s NewsRevue who interviews Rossy before his successful Channel crossing.

Jet Man, Yves Rossy, jumps out of a plane with a wing strapped to his back. He is also equipped with jet engines to provide powered flight. Hence the name Jet Man, or, as he calls himself, FusionMan.

He recently did a successful flight around Switzerland, going far enough that he feels he is ready to take on the English Channel.

You can read about it here, or, more interestingly, watch the video of him flying around Switzerland.

It is some time now since I wrote about Yves Rossy, but he is back in the news.

On 26 September 2008, Yves successfully flew across the English Channel from Calais, France, to Dover, England in under 10 minutes ^- 9 minutes 7 seconds to be exact. His speed reached 186mph during the crossing, and was 125mph when he deployed his parachute.

He leapt from a plane at an altitude of 2,700m and fired up his jet-propelled wing for the 35m flight to England. Minutes later he swept over onlookers on the British side and landed in a field near the white cliffs of Dover. The flight was meant to trace the route of French aviator Louis Bleriot, the first person to cross in an airplane 99 years ago.

Ever since he was a child, Yves Rossy had wanted to “fly like a bird”. And so he developed and built a winged pack with rigid aeroplane-type  carbon fibre wings with a span of about 8 feet (2.4 m), and four small kerosene-burning Jet-Cat, jet engines under the wings. He has to wear a heat-resistant suit similar to that of a firefighter or racing driver to protect him from the hot jet exhaust.

Enjoy the video posted by  YvesRossy himself.

Congratulations for an historice feat and flight…

How about this, strapping a wing to your back, add a couple of jet engines, jump put a plane, and the fly!  Well that’s what Yves Rossy did, and crossed the channel at the same time, doing the 22 mile Calais to Dover trip in 10 minutes.

When I first saw him, thought he looked just like ‘Master Chief’ from Halo, did also hear Buzlightyear get mentioned too.  After seeing the video, I must say my first though was ‘I want one of those!’

BBC News: http://tinyurl.com/4z2s5g

Yves Rossy flew across the English Channel in 13 minutes with his mini-jet-powered wing on September 26, 2008. (Credit: 6 ABC Action News.com)

Man has been trying to fly like a bird for more than 2,400 years, yet has only begun to master the process in the last century.

One man who made up his mind to become the man first to fly like a bird—horizontally—is Yves Rossy, nicknamed “The Jet Man”. The former military pilot, 49, who flies a Swiss International Airbus A320 transporting tourists to Luxor and Sharm El Sheikh, spent five years developing his wings for his flying man project to become the first man to fly like a bird,

Yves has served as a fighter pilot in the Swiss Air Force, flying Dassault Mirage IIIs, Northrop F-5 Tiger IIs and Hawker Hunters. He also flew Boeings 747 for Swissair and now pilots an Airbus A320 for Swiss International Air Lines.

Amongst his daring hobbies are “dangling from the wing of a biplane, bare-foot water-skiing, wakeboard, hydro-speed, delta flying and paragliding, snowboarding and aerobatic flying.”

Daredevil pilot Yves Rossy, is both the first person to build and the first person successfully to fly a jet engine-powered wing strapped to the back. The flight occurred in November 2006 in Bex, lasting nearly six minutes.

On September 26, 2008, Yves Rossy, also known as “Fusion Man” and “Rocket Man”, leaped from a Pilatus Porter drop plane about 8,200 feet above the French coast of Calais, reaching speeds in excess of 125 miles per hour during the 13 minute flight across the English Channel. The 49-year-old pilot, landed in a field near a lighthouse on the famous white cliffs of Dover delighting onlookers who cheered and waved enthusiastically as Rossy came into view.

Rossy has no instruments except an audio altimeter in his helmet and his wrist watch. Besides the throttle, he has no flight controls except his body. To steer, climb or descend, he moves his head and limbs slightly, a skill he first learned as a sky diver.

“I fuse with my machine. It was my dream as a body to be a bird,” he told his assistants before the flight. His machine consists of four kerosene-powered mini jet engines attached to an eight foot carbon fiber wing. The small but noisy jets carry 30 liters of fuel. “It would be a great device for James Bond so he can go behind enemy lines”, he joked.

Rossy, who spent months preparing for the cross-Channel flight, commented he wants to fly across the Grand Canyon in Arizona next. As for the 13 lonely minutes he spent alone between England and France, he told reporters he felt no fear. “I was under tension. But fear? The day I fear, I don’t go,” Rossy said.

Photograph of Yves Rossy crossing the English Channel with his jet-powered wing. (Credit: Impact Lab.com)

Yep, after more than 2,400 years, we now have a modern Daedalus who learned to fly like a bird and passed the challenge with flying colors (no pun intended). Bravo!

See Photo Gallery: Yves Rossy – Photo Gallery of the Flying Man

Source: “Rocket Man” Flies Over English Channel – 6 ABC Action News

Yves Rossy, crossed the English Channel yesterday in 13minutes; strapped to a single jet-powered wing, with only a helmet and flight suit for protection.

Cruising at speeds of over 125 miles (200 kilometers) an hour, Yves Rossy, aka JETMAN, steered by just moving his head and back. How cool is that?

Yves Rossy is a Swiss pilot, aviation enthusiast and the INVENTOR of the jet-pack he used that enabled him to cross the English Channel. He has flown over Switzerland before, but the historic flight he made yesterday, September 26, 2008, is is first flight OVER WATER.

Through the JETMAN, individual aviation is just a stone throws away from reality. It’s ALREADY here.

Will the Jet Pack be available in a Sports store anytime soon?

Read more about the JET-MAN here.

MANNEN MAKEN PLANNEN

Twee mannen kwamen twee achtereenvolgende dagen in het nieuws met twee opvallende stunts. De ene liet me koud. Bij het bericht over die andere had ik wild enthousiast voor mijn tv willen staan springen indien ik niet te lui was geweest om vanonder mijn dekentje te komen en hierdoor mede mijn kat in haar slaap te verstoren.

David Blaine hangt zestig uur ondersteboven aan een kabel in NY, Central Park. So what, ik blijf onberoerd bij dit nieuwsitem, het raakt me niet. Of ja, ik denk hooguit: ocharme die mens zijn kop en ik vraag me af hoe hij dat doet wanneer hij naar ‘t wc moet. Ik zie een journaliste een interview afnemen eveneens hangend aan een kabel en ik denk: alles voor de media, onnozele trut. Dit kan best een heel bijzondere prestatie zijn, maar bij mij valt het in de categorie van mensen die zich vijftien dagen levend begraven, of proberen het Guinness book te halen door zevenhondervijfendertig hamburgers tegelijk in hun mond te proppen. Show en spektakel.

Yves Rossy, Fusion Man,  vliegt over het kanaal. Met vleugels en in tien minuten. Het was een klein berichtje in het nieuws en het ontlokte vele oh en ah’s en wows van op de bank. Even later zag ik op National Geographics de volledige reportage. De gevaren, de testen, de mislukte pogingen, de minzame Yves Rossy, de geslaagde vlucht. Betoverend, avontuurlijk, meeslepend. Geschiedenis.

Mensen en hun dromen. Allemaal doen we in de lagere school uitspraken. Ik word brandweerman. Ik ga de wereld redden. Ik ga een uitvinding doen waardoor mensen nooit meer ziek zijn. Maar wat drijft een mens om ook effectief voor die ene quasi onmogelijke droom te gaan?  “Ik wil vleugels. Ooit.” Veertig jaar later heeft hij ze. Onverstoord doorzetten. Van de ene mislukking in de andere. Proberen en nooit opgeven. Verbeteren. Een jaar werken aan een minuscuul detail. Tien millimeter maakt het verschil in slagen of mislukken. In stilte, verbeten doorgaan. Waar haal je die kracht, dat niet-aflatend enthousiasme, die wil om te slagen? Ik heb het niet en dat vind ik regelmatig zeer jammer. Ik vind het bewonderenswaardig.

Ik zat me af te vragen waarom deze twee mannen zo’n verschillende reacties uitlokken bij mij. De eerste heeft wellicht ook jaren voorbereiding achter de rug. Had ook een doel en een droom (David 6j: ik wil later ondersteboven aan een kabel hangen.) en zal daar ook wel bijzonder hard voor gewerkt hebben. Het antwoord heb ik voor een stuk gevonden: bij de eerste zag ik een man aan een kabel hangen. Punt. Bij de tweede zag ik ons binnen tien jaar allemaal met ons valiesje over het kanaal vliegen met onze eigen vleugeltjes. Ik zag een luchtruim met verkeers- en hoffelijkheidregels. Ik stelde me praktische problemen voor (waar laat ik mijn vleugeltjes, hoe fatsoeneer ik mijn kledij?). Ik zag een futuristisch filmpje van Hannah&Barbera in felle en vrolijke kleuren. Ik zag mogelijkheden. Ik dacht aan Blériot, aan hoe waanzinnig  kort de luchtvaartgeschiedenis nog maar is, ik dacht aan Icarus en Da Vinci. Aan Steve Fosset (en hoe het daar mee zou zijn). Aan Thor Heyerdahl en Fons Oerlemans zelfs. Yves Rossy spreekt tot mijn verbeelding. Dàt is het. Hij zet me zelf aan het dromen. Hij maakt me blij.

Versta me niet verkeerd, dagelijks verwezenlijken mensen individueel hun meer realistische kinderdromen.  Of spectaculairdere dromen. En anderzijds werken er dagelijks grote helden in stilte met zinvolle projecten aan een betere wereld. Ook met veel moed, volharding, doorzetting en miskenning. Ik sta er genoeg bij stil en heb er ook grote bewondering voor.  Meestal is het ontmoedigend, vechten tegen de bierkaai, een druppel op een hete plaat. Tristesse alom.  Maar avontuurlijke, fabelachtige en gekke mensen – want geef toe, maf moet je hiervoor toch wat zijn – als Yves Rossy hebben in het verleden al voor echte doorbraken en omwentelingen gezorgd.

En van die dwarsliggers, eigenzinnigaards, buitenbeentjes en mafketels in onze wereld die daarbij ook nog eens pionier zijn, ben ik helemaal weg. Wat doen David&Yves u?

]]> http://snnangola.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/human-jet-voara-de-franca-a-inglaterra/ Fri, 26 Sep 2008 21:46:20 +0000 snnangola http://snnangola.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/human-jet-voara-de-franca-a-inglaterra/

Yves Rossy é um Suiço que criou um dispositivo planador que acoplado ao corpo humano mais parece um filme de ficção cientifica. Como ele funciona está fora de minhas intenções tentar perceber. A verdade é que voa e voa mesmo, prova disso, o mesmo voará de Calais em França a Dover em Inglaterra, percorrendo 35 Km de distancia.

Forget hang gliding, check this out!

And guess what, he just crossed the English Channel!

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/09/26/rocket.man.english.channel.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

LONDON, England (AP) — Swiss adventurer Yves Rossy successfully crossed the English Channel using his homemade jet-propelled wing Friday, the first man to perform the feat.

Yves Rossy makes a safe landing after successfully crossing the English Channel.

Rossy leapt from a plane more than 8,800 feet or a mile and a half from the ground, before firing up his jets.

He made the 22-mile trip from Calais in France to Dover in England in a little under 15 minutes.

He began the Friday flight just before 1207 GMT; by 12:15 GMT, Rossy was above British soil and looped over onlookers before opening his parachute, with his wings still strapped to his back.

He touched down in a field near the famous white cliffs of Dover. Watch more about the incredible flight »

“It was perfect. Blue sky, sunny, no clouds, perfect conditions,” Rossy said. “We prepared everything and it was great.”

The trip across the Channel is meant to trace the route of French aviator Louis Bleriot, the first person to cross in an airplane 99 years ago.

The lighthouse was the site of Guglielmo Marconi’s experiments with radio telegraphy in 1898. Bleriot used the white building as a target during his pioneering flight, the building’s manager, Simon Ovenden, said.

Several hundred spectators rushed to greet the pilot, trying to take photographs with cameras and cell phones.

“It’s a remarkable achievement, we saw the climax of his attempt as he came down to earth with his parachute. It’s been an exciting afternoon,” said Geoff Clark, a 54-year-old onlooker from Chatham, in Kent.

The carbon composite-wing weighs about 121 pounds (55 kilograms) when loaded with fuel, and carried four kerosene-burning jet turbines that kept him aloft. The wing had no steering devices — Rossy moved his body to control its movements.

He wore a heat-resistant suit similar to that worn by firefighters and racing drivers to protect him from the heat of the turbines. The cooling effect of the wind and high altitude also prevented him from getting too hot.

Ze bestaan nog: échte luchtvaartpioniers.

Ze kennen een rijke traditie: Mongolfier in de eerste ballon bij Parijs. Otto Lillienthal in z’n zweefvliegtuig op de Wasserkuppe. Wilbur en Orville Wright op Kitty Hawk. Louis Blériot over Het Kanaal. Charles Lindbergh in de Spirit of St. Louis over de Atlantische Oceaan, gevolgd door Aemilia Earhart in haar Lockheed Vega. Parmentier in De Uiver naar Melbourne. Chuck Yeager in de X-1door de geluidsbarrière. Paul MacReady in de Gossamer Albatross fietsend Het Kanaal over. Dick Rutan en Jeana Yeager in de Voyager op één tank de wereld rond.

IJzeren mannen (en een enkele vrouw) in houten vliegmachines. Voer voor meters jongensboeken. En ik kan het weten, want ik heb ze hier staan.

Ik heb zojuist op m’n boekenplank een plekje ingeruimd voor een Zwitser: Yves Rossy. Vandaag, iets minder dan 100 jaar na Blériot, vloog deze vermetele aviateur wederom Het Kanaal over. Maar ditmaal met alleen een paar vleugels en vier straalmotoren op z’n rug.

Wow.

Droogjes had Jet-Man vooraf opgemerkt: “If I calculate everything right, I will land in Dover. But if I get it wrong, I take a bath.”

IJskoud lachend het noodlot tarten: alleen zo maak je luchtvaartgeschiedenis. En met passie, natuurlijk. Na z’n eerste proefvlucht vanaf Bex riep ie: “It’s like there’s a big handle in your back, and the good Lord takes you by it and shoves you through the air, it’s fantastic!!”

Nogmaals: wow. Kippenvel.

Cher Monsieur Rossy, j’espère que vous accepterez cette geste de ma grande admiration:

Elton John – Rocket Man