Yves Rossy is a Swiss military-trained pilot and an aviation enthusiast. He is known as the inventor of a series of experimental individual jet packs, the latest using carbon-fiber wings for flight. Often referred to as "Jetman", Rossy has sometimes tested and presented new versions of his jet packs in high-profile events staged around the world.
Rossy developed and built a wingsuit system comprising a backpack equipped with semi-rigid aeroplane-type carbon-fiber wings—with a span of about —powered by four Jetcat P400 jet engines, modified from large kerosene-fueled model aircraft engines. This has led to him being referred to in the press by various monikers, such as The Airman, Rocketman, Fusionman, and—most commonly—Jetman.
Developmental flights
In December 2006 Rossy became the first to successfully fly horizontally for six minutes using four jet engines and wings strapped on his back. He was quoted as saying: "The idea is to have fun, not to kill yourself". Since 2007 Rossy has conducted some of his flight tests from a private airfield, Skydive Empuriabrava, in Empuriabrava, Spain. In May 2008 Rossy made a flight over the Alps Mountain Range, reaching a top speed of, and an average speed of. On 26 September 2008, Jumping from a Pilatus Porter at an altitude of 8,200 feet over Calais, France, Rossy crossed the English Channel with a single jet-powered wing strapped on his back, wearing only a helmet and a flight suit for protection. Reaching speeds of up to, he made the 22-mile flight to England in 13 minutes, where he deployed his parachute and landed in Dover, UK becoming the first person to cross the Channel in this manner. In November 2009 Rossy attempted a crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar, hoping to be the first person to fly between two continents using a "Jet pack". He leapt from a small plane about 1,950 m above Tangier in Morocco and headed in the direction of Atlanterra, Spain. The flight was expected to take about a quarter of an hour. Strong winds and cloud banks forced Rossy to ditch into the sea just three miles from the Spanish coast, where his support helicopter picked him up ten minutes later, unhurt. The SpanishCoast Guard retrieved the jetpack, which was equipped with a parachute and float. In 5 November 2010 Rossy flew a new version of his jet-powered flight system and successfully performed two aerial loops before landing via parachute. He had launched from a hot air balloon piloted by Brian Jones at 2,400 meters. In 7 May 2011 Rossy flew above the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The United States Federal Aviation Administration had classified his flight system as an aircraft. When it finally granted him a license, the FAA waived the normal 25 to 40 hours of flight testing time, and Rossy acted quickly to complete his flight.
Latest media and event appearances
Rossy was featured on an episode of Stan Lee's Superhumans. He has appeared on the BBC's Top Gear, where he raced Richard Hammond and Toni Gardemeister. Rossy was a main attraction at the 2013 Experimental Aircraft AssociationAirVenture Fly-In, America's largest fly-in. Rossy was also featured in the South Australian Primary School's Music Festival in 2014, when the theme of the Festival was flight. The song, 'Jetman', was written by Paul Jarman about Yves Rossy.
October 2015 sustained flight
In 13 October 2015, Rossy and Vince Reffet, wearing jetpacks, deployed from a helicopter flying at 5,500 feet and flew in a choreographed demonstration with an EmiratesAirbus A380 cruising at an altitude of 4,000 feet over Dubai. The flights were documented by the use of helmet-mounted cameras and third-party videos released in early November 2015. The videos show the pair soaring and diving around the airliner, flying in formation with it for about ten minutes. A television program "City in the Sky, part 2" about how airliner flights are run, showed at its start Yves Rossy and Vince Reffet flying with Rossy-type jetpacks, to show some principles of how airliners fly. It said that before being allowed to jetpack-fly in Britain, he had to get himself registered as an aeroplane, because parts of his body, rather than parts of his jetpack, acted as control surfaces; but he was exempted from the seat-belt rule. It showed him being lifted to flying height on the outside of a helicopter. He had to fall a distance to build up enough air speed for his airfoils to work.
