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Rocketman Takes Off In Custom-Made Wingsuit
disco_tracy writes "Yves Rossy, the Swiss adventurer who has already flown across the English Channel using a winged jet-pack, pulled off another exploit Friday, flying two aerial loops in a new version of his invention. Rossy, who was testing a new, more aerodynamic model of the jet-pack, jumped from a hot-air balloon at 2,400 meters (7,900 feet) and performed the stunt during an 18-minute flight before making a parachute landing."
The BBC has some video of his flight, and the Washington Post put up a handful of pictures.
And I think it's gonna be a long, long time before touchdown brings him 'round again to find
He's not the man they think he is at home, no no, no no
She packed my bags last night pre-flight
Zero hour nine AM
And I'm gonna be high as a kite by then
I miss the earth so much I miss my wife
It's lonely out in space
On such a timeless flight
And I think it's gonna be a long long time
Till touch down brings me round again to find
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I'm a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone
Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact it's cold as hell
And there's no one there to raise them if you did
And all this science I don't understand
It's just my job five days a week
A rocket man, a Rocket Man
And I think it's gonna be a long long time
And I think it's gonna be a long long time
I won't be impressed until he can .. take off from the ground.
Then we'll be getting some where.
I'm getting of waiting for the bus.
I have nothing snarky to say. That was just cool.
- sigs are stupid
That was... falling with style!
Jumped from a balloon and landed with a parachute.
Just figure out that launch and land from the ground thing, then we'll have the ultimate traffic beater!
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
...but a rather minor point.
Met Yves many times back in the 90s in Zermatt (the North Wall Bar). Very intense, but very nice guy -- cool to see him having such success with his rather intimidating project!
That's one cool motherf#cker...
Perhaps I'm trolling, perhaps I'm not.
He's got a rigid carbon fibre wing strapped to his back, with jets attached to it. I'd call that a powered hang glider, not a wingsuit.
The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
Wow, watching a 30 second ad to see 5 pictures of mostly the same content, that must be a new low.
TFA calls him "the first winged person to make a successful crossing of the Channel".
That's not counting Hawkman's attempt in All-Star Comics #16, which was thwarted by the Luftwaffe, forcing him to land in Guernsey. :)
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Now everybody will want jet powered wings to save money on gas.
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
Did not see any loop maneuver - only a roll.
One, it's not a wing suit. It's a suit with a hard wing attached to it. Sure, technically, that could be called a wingsuit (or maybe a winged suit) but wingsuit has typically come to mean the flying squirrel type suits.
Two, he did not do two loops. He did two ROLLS.
if these suits were commercially available and people used them. We'd have people falling out of the sky like live turkeys being thrown from the traffic helicopter by Les Nessman in the old WKRP in Cincinnati TV show.
** As god is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly! **
An retired inventor, once intrepid, sheds a single tear. Old memories, indeed.
This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
... Burt Rutan thinks of this guy ... ?
Check out my novel.
That's nothing. By the time he rolled over the Roadrunner was already back in the gondola dropping the first anvil.
Actually, that was nothing short of awesome. I wonder how the guy walks, with such a pair.
Rocketman
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
That is outstanding, but the text in English is misleading. Loops implies a vertical circle. It appears that he either did rolls, or horizontal circles. Loops require a lot more lift to drag ratio and power to weight ratio than I suspect he has. Still, it is a fantastic flight. Keep it up!
It must be an amazing experience to fly this thing. I wonder how he landed, with a regular parachute or not.
Discovery News has a great site. I had to keep refreshing to see all the potential "Discovery news...wants to ____________" headlines that pop up when it loads.
If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
That is very cool, but it's not taking off. Taking off means starting from the ground, which still hasn't happened yet.
Mayhaps a poor choice of words, disco_tracy.
- "Nobody came out that night, not one was ever seen. But Old Man Stauf is waiting there, crazy sick and mean!"
So did he need to get any special clearance from the air traffic control in the area where he made his jump? Imagine that you are putting along in your Cessna, and this guy zooms by. It would scare the bejesus out of me.
"Uh, Zurich control, this is flight DE1073. You're not going to believe this, but a guy with wings and a jet pack just flew by me!"
"Here Zurich control, DE1073, you've been drinking, sir. Please land your plane as soon as possible."
Man, I am really impressed with private innovation like this. If this were a government project, it would still be held up in funding committee squabbles.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Isn't there a way he could use some of the excess power from the turbines to compress air into small bottles? That way, he could have a JATO (jet assisted take off), replenish his supply mid-flight, and have a JAL (Jet Assisted Lanfing). He'd keep his parachute as a backup of course.
Not saying the engineering won't be difficult but it would allow (very) short distance "jet-pack" use and long distance "flying".
Holy crap!! That is just plain awesome!! I wish I could get me one of these suits!! haha Could you imagine that? That would be some Funny Shit right there haha
Wouldn't you be able to stay aloft much longer if you had a helicopter-pack rather than a jet-pack or rocket-pack?
I get so damn sick of this time and again, and again and again...
What Rossy has been doing with his rocket wing is cutting edge stuff, and cool as hell besides.
But what we get from the media is exaggeration, and dare I say deliberate dishonesty...such that when you actually read the article it's disappointing instead of exciting. The term "wingsuit" means something...this isn't it. The term "loop" means something...this isn't it.
Why can journalists not resist the temptation to exaggerate every damn thing they report on?
Why can journalists not resist the temptation to exaggerate every damn thing they report on?
In journalism it's probably a good idea to never attribute to dishonesty something that can more readily be explained by ordinary everyday incompetence; my experience is that most journalists I've met couldn't tell a loop from a barrel roll even if they were sober at the time.
Anyone else notice that the Beeb's flash player volume goes to 11?
Take off, fly and land with the same setup - that's flight.
Lame... no offense but there are at least a half dozen guys here in America who actually have rockets(hydrogen peroxide) and can take off from ground to landing. As in flying across Hollywood boulevard and landing on a building across there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PCEe7RH8A4
Go Fast Jet Pack vs Ford Focus RS 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmQ450ctKJs&feature=related
All that guy did was glide a little faster, too bad none of the reak 'GoFast Jimmmy Rocketman' wasn't featured here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0E6Yh_mSx8
It's a motherfucking suit with a fucking wing, and he does a fucking loop. Pull your head out of your ass.
While this may be the case, a wingsuit is a very specific item:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingsuit_flying
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?