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Man Attempts To Cross English Channel With Jet Wing

Posted by samzenpus on from the shorter-commute dept.

Back in May, we told you about Swiss pilot Yves Rossy and his personal jet powered wing. It seems Mr. Rossy will now try to cross the English Channel with his invention. The flight was planned for Sept. 25 but had to be canceled due to poor weather. Yves will leap from a plane more than 2,500 meters off the ground, fire up his jets and try to make the 35-kilometer flight from Calais in France to Dover in England. If all goes well, the flight will take about 12 minutes. I'd like to officially ask Mr. Rossy for a review model for Slashdot.

6 of 175 comments (clear)

  1. Centurions.... by Naughty+Bob · · Score: 5, Informative

    Power. Extreme!

    --
    "Be light, stinging, insolent and melancholy"
  2. Re:Buzz Lightyear by Is0m0rph · · Score: 5, Informative

    He'll probably make it if you've watched his videos. He flys all over in that wing. If something goes wrong he can throw it off and parachute down.

  3. Re:Talk about a... by DanielG42 · · Score: 5, Informative

    A reserve parachute can open in less than 400 feet and a main parachute can open in 1200 feet or so.

    --
    Daniel
  4. Information about the jets by rminsk · · Score: 5, Informative

    From the looks of it he is using four JetCat P180. Each jet weighs about 5 lb and produces about 45 lb of thrust. They burn about 24 oz/minute of 1-K kerosene/Jet A1 fuel at full power.

  5. The funniest part of course... by LanceUppercut · · Score: 5, Informative

    ... is that news like that clearly demonstrate that 49% of Slashdot poters are living in a cave and 49% other are living under a bridge. What other explanation could there be for all those inane comments?

    Once again: The guy has been flying this thing for quite sime time now! It flies already! And it flies well! No, his feet are not in the path of jet exhaust! Yes, he will make it more than a few feet from the ground, because he's actually taking off _from_ _a_ _plane_! And no, he'll not crash on landing, because he actually uses _a_ _parachute_ to land!

  6. Re:he's gonna kill his feet... by Falconhell · · Score: 5, Informative

    A friend of mine is fitting 3 of those jets to his ASW20 glider.

    I stood 10ft behind one when it was running. It was suprisingly cool so close. The temperature at the tailplane of the glider is below 50 degrees C, so it wont effect the composite glass/carbon flying surfaces

    Must be something to do with the air expanding out of a relatively small nozzle, causing rapid cooling.