Jet Wing Wearer Crosses English Channel.
This afternoon Yves Rossy, the Swiss Airline pilot and former fighter jock, strapped a folded 121-pound carbon-fibre wing to his back, ignited the four kerosene-fueled jet turbines mounted to it and stepped out of a perfectly good aeroplane 8,200 feet above Calais, France.
The wing snapped open, the jets kicked him up to an average speed of around 125 miles per hour, and ten minutes later Yves Rossy was hauling butt over the white cliffs of Dover.
Anyone who would feel compelled to ask why he would attempt such a thing would not understand the answer.
Here’s a video of one of his earlier flights over Switzerland:
Very well done, sir. Very well done.
LawDog
It’s a good thing the Luftwaffe didn’t have this in 1940….
I wonder if he said “Hey y’all. Watch this” before he jumped?
This gets filed away in my archive of “Stuff that is way too cool to need a point.”
I’ve seen some of those videos of that guy already. It looks absolutely exhilarating. I think a part of doing this job involves being a little bit of adrenaline junky. I would love a ride on that rocket!
Somehow, “To Dover, And Beyond!” doesn’t have the same ring to it
That is awesome.
I’ve never really been interested in skydiving – the idea of jumping out of a plane just to fall really far then see if your parachute opens never sounded like much of a rush to me.
But this? Powered, individual flight? I have got to do this before I die.
Kendrick
This is a huge advancement from the Jet Pack… Looks like a lot of fun too!
Amazing looks like more fun then my motorcycle….must…resist…
to quote the Greaseman: “doodads the size of avacados”
“why would he want to do such a thing…?”
because he can, that’s reason enough. i haven’t flown the english channel with a jet pack but i’ve made sure i won’t have to sit in a rocking chair regretting all the things i didn’t do in life.
“gunner”
THAT was AWESOME! I want one! I’ll even listen to Moby…
Tim Covington: He probably did, but it wasn’t preceded by, “Here, hold my beer.”
I had to immediately think of Eric Johnson’s “Cliffs of Dover”