Thursday, January 18, 2007

Jet-Man


Pictured above is the "Jet-Man."

His name is Yves Rossy and he is from Switzerland. It sounds like he is a somewhat famous (and mostly crazy) stuntman. As you can probably figure out from the picture and his nickname, he has developed a set of wings he straps on his back powered by two jet engines.

He jumps out of a plane (my dad would say a "perfectly good" airplane), sails for short time before pulling open his wings and firing up the jet. It takes about 30 seconds for the engines to "stabilize" before he can fly- kind of. His website says he has flown with "even a little climb rate." I think that's a nice way of saying he is hurtling towards the ground most of the time.

Anyway, I have to give him credit for pulling it off (and getting sponsors to help his pay for it!). I especially like the contrail behind him as he "flies":

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