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He's known as Jet Man, FusionMan, and The-Crazy-Guy-With-That-Wing-Strapped-To-His-Back. And he's done it again.
This past Friday the 49-year old Swiss daredevil Yves Rossy jumped from a plane at 8,200 feet over Calais, France, fired up the homemade jet-powered wing strapped to his back, and flew his way across the English Channel in just 13 minutes, at speeds of 125 mph. In a nod to the crowds hanging out on the Cliffs of Dover to watch his flight, he did a theatrical figure eight before opening his parachutes and landing near the famous South Foreland Lighthouse.
"It was perfect," he said of the flight. "Blue sky, no clouds, perfect conditions." He adds that one of the most gratifying parts of his record-breaking flight came when he looked down at the ferries crossing the channel. "I was happy to be faster than them."
The Channel flight wasn't the first record breaker for Rossy, who used to fly DC-9s and 747s for the now defunct Swissair. In 2003 he made headlines after flying 12 kilometers wearing his three meter, carbon fiber wings. In 2004 he dropped from a plane and glided to 2,500 meters, at which time he ignited the flying wing's engines and achieved horizontal flight for more than four minutes at 100 mph. And earlier this year he flew his wing over the Alps maxing out at speeds of nearly 180 mph.
Rossy has spent years refining the design and performance of the flying wing, which is made from carbon composite, glass fiber, and Kevlar. The length of the wings has been extended to three meters, and handles have been added so that Rossy can electronically manipulate the wingtips, giving him the freedom to decide when he wanted to glide or dive.
He worked with JetCat, a company known for motorizing model planes, to develop the engines for the flying wing. At five inches across, they're much smaller than those used in conventional aircraft, though the mini-turbines do operate on standard jet fuel. "We use very fast motors and have developed special parts to ensure that the jet fuel is vaporized and burned completely," says Markus Zipperer, an engineer with Jet-Cat. The Kevlar that encases the engines acts as a sort of bulletproof vest. "The turbines run at a very high speed," Zipperer explains. "If there was a fracture, there is a danger that metal parts would leave the engine and hit Rossy. The engines are also linked by digital processing equipment, so that if one fails, the opposite pair shuts down in half a millsecond.
Rossy is a thrill seeker, and wants to push the limits of what humans can do. "I wanted to show it is possible, to fly, a little bit, like a bird."
Mission accomplished.
Photo: Yves Rossy
