'Jetman' Rossy Flies Above the Grand Canyon

cylonlover writes "Yves Rossy, the former Swiss jet fighter pilot better known as Jetman, flew over the Grand Canyon last Saturday (May 7th) using his wearable jet-propelled wing. It was the first time he has flown with the device in North America, having previously used it to cross the English Channel, perform an aerial loop, fly in formation with stunt planes, and to unsuccessfully attempt traversing a stretch of the Atlantic Ocean between Morocco and Spain."

Comments

Don't bother with the video

[countertrolling]

It's a boring fluff piece montage with horrible editing.. The flight doesn't start before half way in... and with dull music instead of ambient audio

Re:Don't bother with the video

[JustOK]

I like the part where he didn't get physically groped by the TSA.

Re:Don't bother with the video

[Dunbal]

Not only that but the video has been on liveleak for a few days now.

Re:Don't bother with the video

[zill]

The groping was not shot for obvious reasons. Including it would make the video NC-17.

Re:Don't bother with the video

[justinlee37]

Just out of curiosity, have you ever been groped by the TSA?

Because my girlfriend got groped and it really wasn't as big of a deal as everyone is making it out to be. People are just overreacting and letting their imaginations run wild.

Re:Don't bother with the video

[GigaHurtsMyRobot]

I was going to say on a more general level, why is it that 2 days after I read about something it appears on Slashdot?

Re:Don't bother with the video

[immaterial]

This is Slashdot, try not to make it obvious that you're making up an anecdote.

...But in case you're serious: Since both you and your girlfriend are cool with it, mind sending her over here for a bit?

Re:Don't bother with the video

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe she likes being groped by strangers in public. Most people, however, don't.

Re:Don't bother with the video

[TheTurtlesMoves]

Yea, who cares about rights and other unimportant things. Just let em do whatever they want. What could possibly go wrong.

Re:Don't bother with the video

[cculianu]

This is Slashdot, try not to make it obvious that you're making up an anecdote. ...But in case you're serious: Since both you and your girlfriend are cool with it, mind sending her over here for a bit?

OH NO YOU DINNT!!!

And can I join? Cue porno music: *boom chikka wauu wauu*

Re:Don't bother with the video

[NekSnappa]

Hell, I saw it on ESPN Monday, or Tuesday.

Re:Don't bother with the video

[evildarkdeathclicheo]

My 11 yo daughter did, because my wife won't let her go through the radiation emitters. She cried for 2 hours. I guess your girlfriend is more used to strangers groping them. -W

How exactly did he fly 'across' it?

[e9th]

TFA says he started from a helicopter then parachuted to the canyon floor. I was expecting something cool, like he started standing on one side of the canyon, flew across it, then landed safely on the other side.

Re:How exactly did he fly 'across' it?

[Scrameustache]

I was expecting something cool, like he started standing on one side of the canyon

You should expect less from the guy using half a model airplane as a back pack. His thing is cool, I want one and all, but it's consistently oversold.

Re:How exactly did he fly 'across' it?

[toetagger]

With a helicopter and a parachute, of course! (you answered your own question!)

Re:How exactly did he fly 'across' it?

[BonquiquiShiquavius]

Agreed...the key word in the title is "above". Not "across" not "through" but above. I mean, the wingsuit is cool and all, but I don't see this as any more interesting as "Jetman flies above Canadian Tundra". Actually the latter might be more interesting if they included data on the perfomance of the suit in cold vs warmer climates.

Re:How exactly did he fly 'across' it?

[hoboroadie]

TFA says he started from a helicopter then parachuted to the canyon floor.

That's how he's always done it. Like Buzz Lightyear, it's just "falling with style". I still prefer the flying squirrel guys, now that's stylish.

Re:How exactly did he fly 'across' it?

[blair1q]

The use of "above" is inadequate. He did in fact fly below the rim. And he landed at a point within the canyon.

Re:ho hum, personal jet propulsion

[countertrolling]

I'm almost 50...

Get offa my lawn!

Re:ho hum, personal jet propulsion

[demonlapin]

Do show us the youtubez of that. I'm Ford administration vintage and I never saw this until Rossy started doing it.

Funny, I was just watching an old documentary.

[ls671]

This is funny, I was just watching an old documentary about him. Just before he flew across the English channel, he realized in a wind tunnel that his wings were unbalanced so he would always starts an endless looping that leads to a crash on the same side. He learned to recuperate from this anyways. Amazingly, he said that he didn't have time to rebalance his wings before the English channel crossing so he did it as is.

This guy is serious business. Another poster was unsatisfied because he needs to be launched from a plane or helicopter. Believe me, it is a must with his setup. Also, he can't land and he uses a parachute to land. His setup involves only a wing set and a turbine. There is no other controls but the turbine speed. All directional control is done with his body.

Re:Funny, I was just watching an old documentary.

[moonbender]

I thought it was kind of underwhelming when compared to the elegant awesomeness that is wingsuit flying. No turbine needed. Those videos always give me the chills.

Re:Funny, I was just watching an old documentary.

[Frosty Piss]

Ne, he's a serious NUTTER. This "technology" is no more "useful" than any of the crap every other "daredevil" cobbles together to put on their personal brand of Freak Show.

Re:Funny, I was just watching an old documentary.

[ls671]

The guy is former jet fighter pilot and he deals with speeds well above what you reference in your link. If I remember right, it took him less than 10 minutes to cross the English channel while you can multiply that time by about 10 with your suggested setup.

If you do not care about speed then, of course, you are right.

I wrote that the guy meant serious business. I will put more emphasis on this by saying the guy is crazy. Out of reach of common mortals.

 

Re:Funny, I was just watching an old documentary.

[ls671]

Agreed, read my reply to another poster about him being crazy, out of reach of common mortals. So, no use for common mortals planned. He does it just because he can. This is why this is his first stunt in USA. No profits at reach with his product.

Still, it is interesting to see what he knows about aerodynamics. He knows enough to implement aerodynamic principles with his own body at a time where computer assisted stealth flying is more popular.

Re:Funny, I was just watching an old documentary.

[DNS-and-BIND]

Meh. You want real Serious Business, watch this film Devil at Your Heels, a documentary shot in 1981. Screw jetpacks, this guy had a ROCKET CAR. He was going to jump a river from Canada to America with a TEN-STORY RAMP. For real! If you have a spare 100 minutes, I highly recommend the film. At least watch the first five minutes about the rose bushes. If you have an engineering background, the opening shot of the ramp plus an unaerodynamic car going 250mph...make your predictions about how the film ends. The guy Ken Carter is full of unintentional humor. Fans of Napoleon Dynamite or School of Rock will love it. And unlike these two films, the subject is 100% in earnest. Filme Board du Canada didn't make that sort of film back then.

Re:Funny, I was just watching an old documentary.

[ls671]

This does count against somebody being to implement directional control with his body.

By the way I have already watched the reference you provided in the early days. Not the the same at all, in my scale at least.

Re:Funny, I was just watching an old documentary.

[ls671]

This doesn't count against somebody being able to implement directional control with his body

Re:Funny, I was just watching an old documentary.

[L4t3r4lu5]

Out of reach of common mortals.

Duh. He's wearing a jetpack!

Re:Funny, I was just watching an old documentary.

[ls671]

I meant to make it still alive. Try it for fun.

Re:Funny, I was just watching an old documentary.

[ls671]

Of course I would. I am sure that it becomes easy once you get the hang of it. The hard part is not getting killed while taking your first flying lesson using his setup.

Re:Funny, I was just watching an old documentary.

[mijelh]

The turbines are needed if you want to achieve level flight.
Besides Wingsuits have glide ratios of less than 3:1 (they advance 1 unit of distance for every unit they descend) and even when attached with jets they've never been able to keep a level flight path for more 30 seconds.Rossy's setup has a glide ratio of more than twice that, and is the only of such devices to have achieved sustained flight.
That being said, the sense of freedom that I guess a wingsuit provides is probably unmatched.

Re:Funny, I was just watching an old documentary.

[blair1q]

The fact that nobody can follow him around with a helmet-mounted camera means you don't get the same shots. But, seriously, there never has been anything at all that's nearly as cool as what this guy is doing. Never anything.

Re:Funny, I was just watching an old documentary.

[VirtualJWN]

This guy is a complete moron. The idea is stupid, and frankly suprised the FAA would allow such a atrocity to be in US Airspace. (Then again, they let Southwest Airlines fly)....almost the same idea, people hanging onto a wing with jet engines strapped to it......cabin optional. This has GOT to be the STUPIDEST application of OZONE depleting gas I have seen. Why not fire the moron from a cannon, same aerodynamics involved there. (frankly I don't believe in Ozone layer depletion, that was a nod to our lib buddies. Not a must with the setup, just an example of how truly impractical and stupid this concept is. Not even worthy of an honorable mention X-Prize, those have to accomplish something. All this guy is doing is a prolonged attempt at a Darwin Award. We are stupider as a race for allowing morons like this to pursue stupidity on this scale, and to promote it with coverage. He is a Human version of Wile E. Coyote. what a joke. And before you comment and say I am jealous, I have developed many bleeding edge designs in many fields. Trust me, This is a joke. Next thing you know the guy will strap himself ot a rocket and be "rocket man"....."WOW look at me....I am rocket MORON".....

Re:ho hum, personal jet propulsion

[Chrutil]

Do show us the youtubez of that. I'm Ford administration vintage and I never saw this until Rossy started doing it.

Silly. Everybody knows YouTube wasn't invented back then.

Re:ho hum, personal jet propulsion

[Frosty Piss]

I'm almost 50...

Get offa my lawn!

It's Astroturf, kid... I stopped mowing years ago.

Re:ho hum, personal jet propulsion

[Dunbal]

It goes fast. You'll see. And soon you'll have little punks telling you how old you are. I forgot the point I was trying to make...

Re:why so critical?

[Dunbal]

I coded a flight simulator does that count?

whoop dee

[strack]

fucking doo. this is nice and all, but call us when he can actully strap on a pair of skates or something and takeoff from the ground

Re:whoop dee

[jimmydevice]

Skates??? How about some flying ointment? Rub it on and you're off. Of course you never leave the ground, but you think you did.
Too bad the recipe was lost long ago.

Re:whoop dee

[countertrolling]

still needs work

Re:whoop dee

[Technician]

Do you have any idea what the stall speed of that wing is? If you live trying that, you will have made a new land speed record for roller skates.

Re:whoop dee

[hubie]

Better yet, he should buy a huge-ass inner tube (I think the Acme Corp. makes a good one) and stretch it across a big homemade slingshot. Then he can get on his wing and roller skates and really launch himself.

Re:whoop dee

[aclarke]

For your edification: Top Gear: BBC: Aston Martin V8 Vantage vs Man on Jet Powered Roller Blades.

The concept

[DaMattster]

may be old but I still say that it is cool as hell!

Re:The concept

[Provocateur]

Agree 100%. Worthy of an ex-fighter pilot. (As long as he doesn't dive off NY skyscrapers and try to fight crime. Maybe do aerial traffic reports, but then he'd still move faster than anybody.)

Speaking of flying in formation

[Burz]

Here's a different wingsuit guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oY60556JJU

I wonder if Rossy and Jean-Albert know each other.

geography fail

[cheeks5965]

traversing a stretch of the Atlantic Ocean between Morocco and Spain."

umm.. what is the straits of gibraltar? I'll take geography for 500. Daily double!

Re:geography fail

[Bucc5062]

umm.. I'll take geography for 500. Daily double!! what is the straits of gibraltar?

There, that's better. I love that show.

Where was Rickey Ranger?

[Virtucon]

Doesn't the National Park Service have to approve this? I remember when Evel Knievel was trying to jump the Grand Canyon, they gave him a lot of grief then he went to Snake Canyon instead. http://weirdscifi.ratiosemper.com/evelknievel/canyon.html He failed but still would you strap yourself into a steam powered rocket that had never been tested? Later on Knievel blamed the engineer. Typical.. but he still made money on the deal by selling the TV rights and charging spectators a lot for admission and for concessions. ABC Sports had the rights to the event and it was a national thing. This was before the Internet and ABC had always had deals with Knievel.

Then a few years ago his son, Robbie, got permission to jump. Why? I don't know, maybe they weren't selling enough National Park coffee table books at the gift shop? I realize that the national parks are public lands but they're there to be preserved, not to be used for circus attractions. There wasn't the huge hype and once he did it everything was ho-hum.

It seems that every time one of these daredevils actually does something, we raise that bar and consider something similar to be mundane. " Fly over the grand canyon with your little jet pack? Pffft. I saw a guy do it in a hang glider 30 years ago. " I guess that's sad in a way and says something that as society we're becoming bored with things more quickly. We have to be constantly entertained and have the attention spans of two-year-olds.

Now, this guy launched himself from a helicopter. I'd prefer him to try
it like those old time aeronautical pioneers and jump off a rock or a bridge with his wings. Think of the Drama! What if he tripped over a rock or some shit like that? The jet fuel could have exploded or maybe he could have set himself on fire when he launched himself? he'd be like the human torch! Now that would be cool.

Or he could have launched himself like the old "Sky Car" bouncing around.. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4622565557055437255#

Re:Where was Rickey Ranger?

[blair1q]

Pretty sure he had approvals. And the park service doesn't own the whole canyon. Some of it belongs to the Hualapai indians.

Re:ho hum, personal jet propulsion

[timeOday]

I suppose you're thinking of Hydrogen Peroxide packs, which are totally different. Those basically hover; this goes 125 mph.

Re:why so critical?

[ls671]

In that sense, you are right, read my post about watching an "old" documentary below ;-)

That's cool and all but

[WonderingAround]

Where do I get mine? Seriously this is as close as we're getting to jet packs right now, so how long until this is commercialized or I'm not interested.

Re:That's cool and all but

[ShooterNeo]

You can buy a real jetpack here : http://martinjetpack.com/

They are about 100 grand and fly for a good half hour.

Re:That's cool and all but

[WonderingAround]

Well I'll get saving then, I hope by the time I can afford one they're not still the size of smart cars.

Re:That's cool and all but

[ShooterNeo]

How do you propose to make one smaller? Certain physics and engineering constraints are very hard to overcome without technology radically more advanced than anything humans can make today. Right now, hydrocarbon fuels are the most dense fuel sources we have for small high energy output systems (nuclear doesn't work on a small scale). And right now, it's much more efficient to use a high bypass turbofan instead of a pure hot exhaust jet. Once you pick an engine powerful enough to pick up the jetpack user + itself + fuel + frame and control systems...that's what you end up with. Something that is pretty huge and can't really be worn on someone's back.

Rocket belts have flight times measured in seconds, so using a turbofan is a gigantic improvement.

Can _ANY_ technology lead to a jetpack like you are desiring? Yes, ofc. But we're talking nuclear energy or a battery fabricated using atomically precise manufacturing, extremely high power densities, and it's still going to make a huge amount of noise because you're moving enough air to support your own weight. And actually said high technology jetpack would probably use nanotechnology and be composed of millions of moving parts that can assemble themselves into something that looks like the Martin Jetpack but then compact itself back down into something backpack sized when shut down. Think 'transformers'. All the parts would be diamondroid and carbon nanotubes and other exotic materials to get the weight down to something a human being could carry.

Anyways, you can save all you want, that kind of tech is unlikely to show up for 50-100 years or more.

Re:That's cool and all but

[WonderingAround]

Well I can only assume the Martin Jetpack is somewhat of a prototype of this sort of technology as advanced as it may be, but If/once we would be able to customize something like this then I could purchase something more suitable to my jet-packing needs, the "useful pilot" load for this is 280lbs, so being around 160lbs I should be able to theoretically either use the weight gap to my advantage in terms of need for thrust or acceleration speeds, etc. And surely there's should be somewhat of a sport model, probably a lot less safe and having the undercarriage and flight displays stripped, because honestly I'm not too concerned about safety, If you're going to crash this thing it's going to go badly, and If the outside of the craft was covered in a solar panel coating then I'm sure if they can't make it much smaller they can at least make it fly longer. The design is very rigid as of now, why not design some way to fold it once it's landed? No suggestions on how exactly you would do that, but I'm not waiting 50 years for nanotubes to show up I'll just wait 10 for human ingenuity to do it's job.

Re:That's cool and all but

[ShooterNeo]

...Can't happen. Some engineering constraints we have nothing available to overcome them with.

I'd like to buy a watch for some reason

[c_jonescc]

Anyone else accidentally pronounce that site's name with the first g soft, as in magic?

Re:I'd like to buy a watch for some reason

[monk2b]

Is this thing working

Not to mention...

[denzacar]

If you live trying that, you will have made a new land speed record for roller skates.

...you'll be able to finally catch that damn bird.

Re:What is up with the replies?

[MichaelSmith]

I can't even post on android anymore.

Re:What is up with the replies?

[spaceplanesfan]

Same here in Firefox 4 running on Ubuntu 11.04.

BTW, I disabled Unity too (but not compiz)

Re:why so critical?

[Hatta]

A fully functional jet propulsion system would be able to take off and land.

Re:ho hum, personal jet propulsion

[rubycodez]

not just those, real jet engines were also used, with wings, open cockpit mini-planes, wing suits, on packs. Even the Nazis in Germany were playing with them.

Re:ho hum, personal jet propulsion

[timeOday]

Nazis with real jet-engine backpacks? Do tell. Their Me-262 was the first operational jet aircraft, and wasn't out until the final year of the war.

Re:What is up with the replies?

[tompaulco]

Same on Firefox 3 on Windows 7. Sounds like pretty much everybody is seeing the same thing.

Re:What is up with the replies?

[MichaelSmith]

In android I get the text input box but it seems to lose focus every couple of seconds, which closes the keyboard and prevents me from typing. It might be connected to the behaviour I see on ubuntu 11.04 with firefox 4 where the page occasionally scrolls up or down in response to some mouse movements or clicks. Its probably just somebody's idea of a UI improvement with javascript.