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."

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.)

Hate to be a spoil-sport but---

[Ancient_Hacker]

hate to spoil the fun, but:

• Just on general principles, it's unlikely he's really flying, as in having enough thrust to overcome drag.
• Jet engines do not scale down very well-- somewhere around the size of a kosher salami the friction exceeds the power generated, the thrust to weight ratio drops very quickly, making the thing little more than a swooshing kerosene heater.
• We need some more facts, such as jet engine thrust, specific fuel consumption, and cost.

Re:Did it really do anything?

[sbaker]

The thing got up to 300 kph - 186mph - and it climbed several thousand feet. He was zipping alongside the plane in formation, you could see he was turning under full control around those jagged mountain peaks. That's definitely flying!

The problem with takeoff from the ground is that if his engines crap out on him at a couple of hundred feet, he has no time left to open his parachute and he'll be dead for sure. It makes much more sense to iron out any technical glitches with a drop from a plane so he always has time to open his chute in the event of problems. He's doing this very carefully - one baby step at a time.

The other problem with takeoff is that unless he has wheels or ski's or something, there is no way to build up enough speed for the wings to generate any lift. So he's going to have to have enough thrust to take off vertically - and according to TFA, that's something that'll have to wait for the next generation of machine.

Re:Hate to be a spoil-sport but---

[Anonymous Coward]

The article should've probably linked to this video too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-66AcTo9TU [youtube.com]

Truely inspirational. For some reason I cried for the first time in many years (can't remember when the last time was). This guy is my new hero.

He should get a donation link at his website.

Re:Dear Santa

[niktemadur]

Dear Santa,

If it's not too late, I would like to add a jetpack to my Xmas list.

In case Santa doesn't have time to check his inbox today, you can always try the Three Wise Men on January 6th. You gotta be in a spanish-speaking country, however, 'cause that's where the Three Zoroastrian Magi (Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar) show up with gifts for children (of all ages).