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."

Watch the videos

[Hellad]

Pretty damn awsome! The landing can be seen as well; he makes it look easy. The wings fold up and he simply parachutes down like its nothing. I was more shocked when I saw him simply jumping out of a plan with a giant pair of wings on his back; scary stuff.

Cliffs in California

[Anonymous Coward]

Didn't some guy from California fry his ankles off with one of these things a few years ago? I'm pretty sure he was jumping off cliffs, too, instead of jumping out of airplanes. Don't exactly remember how he landed, though.

  http://lyricslist.com/ [lyricslist.com]

He could have built the engines himself

[mangu]

Something that amazes me is that there are hobbyists building those model jet engines from scratch, using detailed plans that this guy [wikipedia.org] published in this book [amazon.com].

After him, several other people published books on building small jet engines, like this one [amazon.com], for instance.

Branson should sponsor him

[www.bnp.org.uk]

This guy is looking for sponsors. Richard Branson should get his wallet out. A truly stunning achievement. The last shot in the video is inspiring.

Re:Nausicaa

[Darkman, Walkin Dude]

The dude jumps out of a plane with a homemade jetpack and flies around for six minutes, and you're not impressed?

Power assisted gliding [pointvista.com] is nothing new, it has been around for a while now. What he's doing is a cool stunt, yes, a fun toy if thats what floats your boat, but its hardly groundbreaking (no pun intended). Its not like he was in any real danger, what with the parachute strapped to his back and everything. Or if he was it was danger of his own making. So no, not impressed.

Re:Nausicaa

[constantnormal]

I'm impressed by the fact that he was his own test pilot ... ... learning the flight characteristics on the way to the ground ...

Obviously, a quick learner.

I'd be interested in knowing what his "Plan B" was in the event the wings folded up in flight, or one engine exploded.

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

[Deadstick]

Yeah, well, here's what you can do with one or two kerosene heaters:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/207659/amasing_rc_je ts/ [metacafe.com]

...and here's what you can do with eight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbITzCI2AU0 [youtube.com]

Those little hairdryers deliver up to 50 pounds of thrust and sell for $3000-$5000.

rj

Its not an airplane-it cant take off

[Anonymous Coward]

At the end of the XIX Century a French Academic Organization (I dont remember its exact name) introduced the notion of airplane as a machine which can fly and CAN TAKE OFF ON ITS OWN (no catapult, no rails, no nothing, only the planes engines).

For example, Wrights brother contraption was not an airplane because although it could fly,it cannot take off on its on (this is the reason why many nations believe that the Wright brothers did not invent the airplane). The same with this contraption, it can fly but it cannot take off on its own, thus is not an airplane.

Re:Did it really do anything?

[hey!]

At first the videos don't seem so impressive when he's just gliding, then you see the thing with the vapor trails going straight out behind him...

I don't think the thing climbs very well because they don't show any dramatic shots of climbing. There's one shot that looks like a steep climb but that is after a power dive. Still it's pretty impressive to pull out of a dive and gain altitude using a short pair of wings strapped to your hips.

The most dramatic segment on the videos is an over the shoulder shot where you see him approaching a ridge. He's a little above it when he starts his approach, but if he's just gliding he's going to end up a greasy smear on the mountainside. He covers quite a bit of horizontal ground and it looks like he gains at least a little altitude on the approach. In any case, it shows either a great deal of faith in the jet engines or a serious death wish.