Zooming Around the Alps In a Homemade Wing Suit

The Washington Post ^ | July 4, 2008 | Craig Whitlock

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CRANS-PRES-CELIGNY, Switzerland -- Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's . . . Fusion Man!

Make that Yves Rossy, a 48-year-old Swiss daredevil also known as Jet Man, Rocket Man, the Bird Man of the Alps.

Thanks to his homemade, jet-powered wing suit, Rossy can flash through the air at a Superman-like 186 mph. Imagine George Jetson, the futuristic cartoon character, pumped up with nuclear steroids and leaving his boy Elroy in the dust.

"It's always been my dream, to fly like a bird," Rossy said in an interview at his home in this Swiss village overlooking Lake Geneva. "And I don't want to do it just for myself, but to show mankind how to do it."

A former fighter pilot in the Swiss air force who now flies commercial aircraft for Swiss airlines, Rossy has been scheming for a decade about possible ways to transform himself into a bird, albeit a mechanical one.

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A short video and the rest of story at link.

Fascinating stuff.

[wendy1946]

He should have that second prototype working by now and be able to take off from the ground.

[Siberian-psycho]

[Siberian-psycho]

I guess that was the early prototype.

[gridlock]

A former fighter pilot in the Swiss air force who now flies commercial aircraft for Swiss airlines, and is soon to be a greasy spot on the side of some anonymous mountain, Rossy...........

[A.A. Cunningham]

FusionMan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-66AcTo9TU&feature=related

[Reeses]

It looks like a scene from a James Bond film. Very impressive!

[A.A. Cunningham]

Swiss 'Fusion Man' Flies Over the Alps With Jet-Propelled Wings

[junkman_106]

Who says cartoons don’t teach anyone anything?

[Mr. K]

i want one...

seriously, how can he fly with balls that big? I would think it would throw off the aerodynamics.

[AndyJackson]

a 48-year-old Swiss daredevil

Looks like a very well-engineered system to me. God I would love to do that. I now know someone I am know really really jealous of.

[Lockbar]

Too much fun, too much ingenuity. The rats will try to make it illegal here in the US.

[SouthDixie]

Rossy has been scheming for a decade about possible ways to transform himself into a bird, albeit a mechanical one.
I'd say he reached his goal and then some.
seriously, how can he fly with balls that big? I would think it would throw off the aerodynamics.
Not only does he have the gonads to fly it but to fly it in the Alps is fearless as well as phenominal.

[AndyJackson]

For the most beautiful flying footage you have ever seen go to his webisite http://www.jet-man.com/prod/index_en.html and then go to the videos, and go to the second video of the third set. It is footage of a flight of Mirages flying through Alpine valleys. Beauty terror and awe. I would not want to be trying to chase these guys.

[reformed_dem]

My son will be very sad. He’s 13 and has been talking about inventing personal wings when he gets older. Looks like someone beat him to it.

[mamelukesabre]

Amazing. Landing has got to be quite a trick.

[karnage]

Heh heh heh! So true.

[AnalogReigns]

I find it great that he is Swiss, the freest people in Europe, and maybe (in spite of their socialism) the world.