Weekend Watch: Man flies like a bird – a jet-powered bird!
One of the pioneers of human flight, Yves Rossy, recently achieved a landmark which went largely unheralded. Rossy’s feats might well go down among the most daring as well as momentous in aviation history.
The former military pilot, 45, who flies Airbuses for Swissair, spent five years developing his wings for his flying man project but went one better with his ‘jet-man’ project by adding two kerosene-powered jet engines to his original wing design to become the first man to fly like a bird: horizontally.
“It was absolutely fantastic; freedom in three dimensions…I felt like a bird.” That’s how Rossy described his land-mark flight. Looking like Buzz Lightyear from the film Toy Story as he soared over the Alps at 180km/h. To perfect the performance, the aerodynamic wings were improved and their span was increased to 3 meters.
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