A Swiss airline pilot, known as the Rocket Man, has now moved closer to becoming the first man to fly across the English Channel using a jet-powered backpack.

It was all a dream for Mr. Rossy until he made that dream a reality, but it has taken four incredible years for his design of a jet to make this dream a possibility. It was always his dream to fly like a bird and now that has become real he can only expand his ambition. When he was 30 he began learning how to freefall parachute jumping, he then went on to complete 1,200 freefall jumps.

When he first began his flying man project he was a Airline Captain with a commercial company, he strapped a pair of stubby wings and jumped out of an aircraft, freefalling for the loss of 1000ft in altitude
Mr. Rossy went on to make his jet even bigger by making the wings to 8ft using various metals, fiberglass, Kevlar and carbon fiber which then is strapped to his back.

Mr. Rossy first tested these wings back in May when he flew at 8,200ft for more than five minutes after jumping out of the aircraft using his four small engines and using a lever to control the fuel.

Swooping and diving above the skies he then went on to complete a 10 minute test flight over the town of Bex in Switzerland and he reached 180mph as he flew the clear skies over towards Villeneuve and back then deployed his two parachutes at 5000ft and 4000ft to land at Bex with two litres of fuel left in his tank; he traveled for more than 22 miles which is equivalent of crossing the English Channel. His suit that he wears is a heat resistant suit that is the same as worn by racing car drivers.

Clearly enjoying his first public flight, at speeds of up to 186mph, Mr. Rossy tipped his wings, flipped onto his back then leveled out again, performing a 360-degree roll.

In an earlier experimental flight three years ago he lost control and spiraled to just 1,600ft from the ground before managing to open his parachute.

“There have been no proper aerodynamic studies of how to simulate this sort of flying,” he says. “All simulations involve a rigid aircraft. My wings are rigid, but of course I am not.” He steers the contraption, he says, ‘purely by intuition’.

Like a bird, he can adjust his ‘trim’ with incredible precision with the flick of a foot or by simply leaning his body one way or the other. “It is like how a child would fly,” he says. He says his ultimate goal is to take off and land just using his Jet wing without an aircraft to take him into the air. 

He said: “Everything went well, it was awesome, and it’s my longest flight with these wings. If there are no technical problems it’s okay for the English Channel.” Because being truly at one with the air, able to swoop and soar likes a falcon or an albatross, remained impossibility. And in legends where the dream became real, as in the myth of the Ancient Greek birdman Icarus, the price was a heavy one; an ignominious crashing to Earth.

On jumping from the plane he appeared to plummet towards earth, before his fall turned to a glide and he ignited the four small jet engines each of which develops 22kg of thrust attached to the carbon wing. Once under power and using a lever to control the fuel, hehad the freedom to soar where he chose.
By shifting the weight of his body he is able to steer and glide the jet wings and he lands with the aid of the parachute.

Like the semi-mythical flying jet-backpack (which was actually tested by the US military in the 1960s) Yves Rossy’s £150,000 flying machine, which has four, small kerosene-fuelled turbojet engines, wings and fuel weighs only 110lbs, sounds like something out of science fiction.

“It would be a great device for James Bond so he can go behind enemy lines,” he says. “I want to fly, not to steer.”

“Up there in my invention, I am as free as a bird.”

“Best not let the health and safety brigade hear about this.”

On September 24th 2008, Mr. Yves Rossy is due to cross the English Channel and will be broadcasted live across 165 countries by the National Geographic Channel.

He said that his flight is a tribute to all the other people who tried before him, many of them who were killed.

Post from: Fethiye Bay - Local English Newspaper

Rocket Man