A Working, Winged Jetpack from Switzerland

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."

Comments

hmmp

[Anonymous Coward]

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

It isn't the flying that's the hard part

[Eudial]

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

Swiss Ingenuity

[hedgemage]

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

He could have built the engines himself

[mangu]

Something that amazes me is that there are hobbyists building those model jet engines from scratch, using detailed plans that this guy published in this book.

After him, several other people published books on building small jet engines, like this one, for instance.

Re:Nausicaa

[rucs_hack]

The dude jumps out of a plane with a homemade jetpack and flies around for six minutes, and you're not impressed?

Holy crap...

Summary of his comments

[caffeined]

If you don't speak French, I'll give a brief summary of his comments.

Basically, at the beginning he explains a bit about how it was designed. One point he made was that his reason for the foldable design of the wings was so that it would fit in the plane. The other interesting thing he said was that the design was effectively that of an airplane - with his body serving as the fuselage.

After the flight he just explains that after he jumped out of the plane he did a little half-turn to catch the wind. He also mentions that the wing unfolded nicely - and that when he kicked in the gas that he moved forward and he could tell that at that point he was flying. He said it was really cool, too. (Which I think we'll all agree is the case!)

Also - I'm not a native French speaker. I'm American but lived in Paris a couple of years - any native French speaker care to comment on the guy's accent? Is that a Swiss accent? (I'm presuming so, but I was curious to know from a native.)

Dear Santa

[sbaker]

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!

I am surprised this works ...

[HairyCanary]

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