Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

A Working, Winged Jetpack from Switzerland

Posted by timothy on from the rephrasing-the-flying-cars-question dept.

serutan writes "A Swiss airline pilot and self-described adrenaline junkie named Yves Rossy has developed a working jet-pack and flown it more than 30 times. Actually, it's a pair of rigid carbon fiber wings strapped to his back, with two small kerosene-powered jet engines on each wing — essentially a small jet airplane using the pilot's body as the fuselage. His flights have lasted up to 6-1/2 minutes at speeds over 100mph. Rossy's website and YouTube have some pretty cool videos of him flying around over the mountains like Buzz Lightyear. He is working toward ground takeoffs and landings, but currently he jumps out of an airplane, unfolds the wings and flies until he runs out of fuel, then parachutes to the ground."

10 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. hmmp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's not flying, it's falling with style.

  2. It isn't the flying that's the hard part by Eudial · · Score: 5, Funny

    It isn't the flying that's the hard part, it's landing with the bones in your body intact.

    --
    GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
  3. Swiss Ingenuity by hedgemage · · Score: 4, Funny

    The biggest engineering obstacle he had to overcome was how to fit in the corkscrew.

  4. Re:Cliffs in California by creysoft · · Score: 3, Funny

    Don't exactly remember how he landed, though.

    Painfully.

    --
    Formerly GNU/Anonymous Coward. This message has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals.
  5. Flying is easy ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... Just throw yourself at the ground and miss.

  6. Dear Santa by sbaker · · Score: 4, Funny

    Dear Santa,

    If it's not too late, I would like to add a jetpack to my Xmas list. You can cross off the PS3 if that helps.

    Thanks!

    --
    www.sjbaker.org
  7. I am surprised this works ... by HairyCanary · · Score: 4, Funny

    I wouldn't think he'd be aerydynamic enough with a sack that large hanging underneath..

  8. Re:Nausicaa by Adriax · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Oh father who art in heaven..."?

    --
    I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!
  9. sure flyin is fun and all until one of those by bxbaser · · Score: 3, Funny

    engines grenade 2 feet from his groin

  10. Re:Wright brothers did invent the airplane by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    BTW why do they speak French in the movie?

    Because it's faster than writing it on cards and holding it up so you can read it?

    It's one of the four official languages of Switzerland.

    Dont they learn English in school in Switzerland?

    Probably, but English isn't one of their official languages. They don't even border an English-speaking country. Why would they speak English?

    Besides, it is a funny kind of French, is the inventor French Canadian or what?

    It's pretty clear he's Swiss. (They speak everything funny. Listen to them try to speak German sometime.)