Rocketman Takes Off In Custom-Made Wingsuit 73
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.
Rocketman!!! (Score:2)
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
Where's Helicopter-man?? (Score:2)
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He's his own wingman.
He could stay aloft longer with bungee cords.
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Yves is now working on a new prototype, smaller and more powerful, which will should allow the take-off from the ground and more freedom for aerobatics!
As a person that used to do alot of skydiving, the ultimate outcome of this would be strapping on one of these wings, taking off from the ground, fly up to 13,000ft altitude, go into freefall until ~ 3,000ft and land under parachute ... Awesome.
Cool (Score:5, Insightful)
I have nothing snarky to say. That was just cool.
That wasn't flying! (Score:2)
Really an assisted skydive, but cool anyway (Score:2)
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!
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Absolutely, can't see any issue with jet powered individuals flying over crowded areas.
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If this catches on it could be a way to make the summer Olympics more interesting than the winter Olympics.
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If this is the guy I'm remembering, the landing part is the ultimate goal of his experiments. With the wing, the wearer can turn the downward speed into horizontal speed. Then use the horizontal speed to give more lift canceling out the remaining vertical speed with reduction of horizontal speed. Thus, if timing it correctly, the wearer could stall out right at ground level and basically just step down to
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Hang gliders have already solved the landing problem, and it's exactly as you described. Their advantage there, though, is that their wings are large, and their speeds are low, specially at stall. Rossi's wing is small, so he needs to fly fast just to keep from stalling. He'd need to develop something to provide extra lift at low speeds, like, say, trailing-edge flaps.
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The thing is I did a lot of hang gliding 20 or so years ago and the landings you describe were very easy. But about a year ago I was watching these guys flying at a coastal site in Australia (I helped one guy with his launch because he had run out of helpers) and every single landing on the beach resulted in a face plant. Just a small increase in stall speed makes that trick impossible.
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F _ _ Y
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Wow (Score:2, Informative)
Wingsuit? Looks more like a hang glider to me. (Score:2)
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.
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I was just thinking something similar. There should be some kind of gentleman's agreement along the lines of "the advertising can't be more eye-catching than the content".
I propose that we reverse-slashdot the Washington Post by never visiting their site again! :D
winged person (Score:4, Funny)
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. :)
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Uhm ... by your own account ("thwarted") Hawkman failed at crossing the Channel, making Rocketman the first to successfully cross the Channel.
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One might argue that Guernsey hugs the coast of France close enough to count as "crossing the Channel".
If I hadn't made the whole thing up, that is, in a somewhat feeble joke on the notion of a "winged person".
Just what we need for the holiday season. (Score:1)
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And thanks to Amish craftsmen, you can have jet powered wings and save money on gas.
And if you call today, we'll give you two sets!
inaccurate (Score:1, Informative)
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.
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He pressed Z or R 4 times then.
Imagine what it would be like (Score:5, Funny)
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 [wikipedia.org] TV show.
** As god is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly! **
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Ah.. recalling that moment never gets old. Truly one of the funniest bits I can remember from TV of that age. Of course thinking of this show raises the question... do you go for Jennifer or Bailey? For me it's Bailey all the way.
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Still.. funny, nonetheless!
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Turkeys can, in fact, fly.
But they can't land for squat. I watched one come in for a landing while hunting, and I must say that had to hurt - he hit the ground and proceeded to blast through some underbrush like a bowling ball.
Somewhere between Arizona and New Mexico.... (Score:2)
I wonder what ... (Score:2)
... Burt Rutan thinks of this guy ... ?
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You should register an account, this was the funniest, and most insightful comment of this article.
Not to take anything away but . . . (Score:1)
Re:Not to take anything away but . . . (Score:4, Informative)
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That loop was not in the video linked in the summery.
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Fantastic (Score:1, Redundant)
It must be an amazing experience to fly this thing. I wonder how he landed, with a regular parachute or not.
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I love that site (Score:2)
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.
Not taking off (Score:5, Informative)
Mayhaps a poor choice of words, disco_tracy.
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Air Space Clearance? (Score:2)
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 li
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T
not taking off (Score:1)
Journalistic dishonesty detracts from actual event (Score:2)
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 da
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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.
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While this may be the case, a wingsuit is a very specific item:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingsuit_flying [wikipedia.org]
wahhh wahhh wahhh (Score:2)
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 [youtube.com]
Go Fast Jet Pack vs Ford Focus RS 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmQ450ctKJs&feature=related [youtube.com]
All that guy did was glide a little faster, too bad none of the reak 'GoFast Jimmmy Rocketman' wasn't featured here.