Cool
Very cool:) Of course - you'd have to be crazy to fly something like that but still:)
I also love the use of duct-tape and cardboard(?) or something taped to the underside of the wings - can be seen at end of the video.
Swiss aerial daredevil Yves Rossy, aka "Jetman" has completed his latest feat successfully, leaping from a helicopter to hurtle across the Grand Canyon using his unique strap-on, jet-powered personal aeroplane before descending to land by parachute. Rossy's previous feats have included a flight across the English Channel and …
No, he spends his time falling out of aircrafts, being given big kick up the backside then falling down a few kilometres away. It's not even falling gracefully.
Would you have considered it controlled flying if the Wright brothers had jumped out of a tree and flapped their arms about?
Sore spot?
Sorry dude, but I do vote "jetwing backpack-birdman" as a significantly more awesome hobby that "complaining on t'internets." For that matter, more awesome than most of my hobbies, too.
Using the internet to run down people who do things that are more exciting than anything you undertake is so 1990s. Posting cats was the 2000s. How about we work on something more productive for the 2010s, eh?
I'd argue that anyone willing to jump out of an Aircraft doesn't need any help "pulling the birds." The jetpack, aircraft jumping otherwise being a spectular example of dudeness simply ensures that the birds he's going home with are of the "top notch" variety.
Probably all at once.
Love to see the side-by-side against using "I complain on t'internets" as your bait.
So, when will he be trying the Snake River (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_Knievel#Snake_River_Canyon)?
@Neil Barnes - IF he starts out on the North Rim and heads south, he stands a chance, as the North Rim is higher than the South Rim. If/When he can start at the South Rim and head North successfully - that's when I'll be impressed.
General: You don't need a thrust to weight ratio > 1 to climb - after all, your average Cessna 182 can manage that quite nicely. You just need to have more positive wing lift than your weight with less drag than your thrust.
To climb you need more lift than weight, in forward flight then your statement is correct but to achieve controlled VTOL you need thrust to be greater than weight and drag as both of these forces will be acting downwards and with 0 airspeed your wing will be generating no lift.
Peronally I'd like to see this guy strap on some roller skates, crank it up to about 60 knots on the tarmac and then rotate...
Who remembers Centurions, Saturday morning cartoon in the 80s?
I'm surprised this guy needs 4 jets when a cruise missile can get by with one, but then I haven't put as much thought into strap-on jet wings as him so must defer to his judgement.
How about folding wings so he can be fired from a canon then ignite jettisonable booster rockets for take-off, and a more pointy helmet and canard gauntlets (with guns in them)?
And how do you know he is the only man alive who can fly it? Has anybody else tried? I'd give it a go :) It could be that it's easy and all the mishaps are pilot error, who'd know?
Ps where are the women that flock to "my hobby is tolling the internet"???
The landing looked particularly uncomfortable!
Well, there's a first time for everything...
My point was that this fellow is being feted not for the feat of crossing the GC - he didn't, from the reports I read: he landed on the canyon floor - but for strapping a rocket to his arseparts and donning a wing-suit.
He did something essentially similar over the English Channel - a high altitude takeoff to ensure that his glide angle was sufficient to get him across. The motor is moving him along at a pretty quick lick, but so what? It's hardly a useful aircraft if the only way is down...
Were it not for the fact that para and hang-gliders are excluded from the Grand Canyon airspace, he could have achieved exactly the same flight - though slower - with an unpowered paraglider. He could probably have done a rim-rim flight unpowered, too, and certainly with a powered paraglider.
Fair play to the guy, but he's achieved no great aeronautical feat here beyond lots of coverage for a watch manufacturer.
<I'm going to get zapped for this one, too...>