Awesome Experience: Flying Like a Bird!

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This is not a prank. Apparently this guy really did this. He’s the first. Maybe the last. I’m of the notion that you don’t want to push it too far if you’ve got a good (but dangerous) thing going. Sure, ham it up once for the cameras, and then get back to the drawing board - or sign someone else up to fly that contraption around! As far as dangerous - this must be OFF THE SCALE!

Yves Rossy jumped from a plane at an altitude of 8,000 feet with jet-fuel powered wings attached to his back in a harness type contraption. He did several loops at around 300 km per hour (180+mph).
Photos courtesy of Fabrice Coffrini at Getty Images.
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10 Comments, Add YOUR comment or Ping
Anonymous
I dont think he is the first.. Ive been watching these guys do this for years with wings and jets engines.
May 22nd, 2008
bbfreak
Its neat and all, but those jet engines can’t be very good for long flights and the fact that he has to jump out of an aircraft to get things going is a little scary.
May 23rd, 2008
Spud
this guy has invested approx 500′000 dollars in resarch and developement on this.
check him out for yourself. He’s well know in switzerland. Here is his website. A few of my mates skydive with him
http://www.jet-man.com/prod/index_en.html
This guy is out of this world !!!
May 23rd, 2008
ArrGee
At present he has a flying time of 10 mins but is planning a flight across the English Channel.
May 24th, 2008
Phil E. Drifter
How did he get down?
Jun 1st, 2008
sir jorge
all is well until something goes terribly wrong and you lose your life.
Jun 9th, 2008
Vern
@Phil
Ha! - great question - and I don’t know. I’ll have a look for that info - nobody mentioned it in the articles I saw!
@All - Thanks all for the comments!
Jun 10th, 2008
Natovr
hHAHA! I saw this on BBC news, so it’s real. Its not big in the media though. I would want to do that! But I would have to become a pilot first :)
Stumbled!
@Phil and @Vern
He slowed down and used a parachute ;) I guess he glided for a while first so he can slow down, but it still sounds a bit rough.
Jun 15th, 2008
Natovr
Oh yeah, I guess it’s still under development, so he would probably get bigger wings and more fuel. They would probably make a contraption for takeoff. Otherwise the idea can’t be used by the public.
Jun 15th, 2008
Vern
It’s the whackiest thing I’ve ever seen I think. Wait… what about the guy that launched his lawnchair into the stratusphere with helium balloons?
Jun 23rd, 2008
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