Jetman, Yves Rossy, Flies Across Dubai Desert Skies [Video]
A new video has emerged showing the Swiss adventurer and inventor Yves Rossy, also known as Jetman, flying across Dubai desert skies in the United Arab Emirates, UAE, with custom-built jet-powered wings.
Jetman, an ex Swiss pilot who flew fighter jets for the Swiss air force for 17 years and later commercial flights for Swiss International Airlines, is shown in the video flying at an altitude of about 5,000 feet above the Dubai desert. He flies at speeds of over 120 mph, performing daring stunts in formation with Hungarian aerobatics champion Veres Zoltan and a plane.
His website describes his achievement as the “culmination of decades of fulfilling a childhood dream through technological innovation, determination, teamwork and courage.”
The flight over the skies of Dubai was part of UAE’s 43rd national day celebration, according to Russia Today.
The video shows Jetman jumping from a helicopter and soaring high over Dubai, performing acrobatics with the two-meter-span four-engine wings weighing about 55 kg. He built the wings himself in a decade-long research and development effort.
He is shown flying in formation with a plane, which circles around him as he flies. The acrobatic maneuver is later reversed, with Jetman now circling around the flying plane.
Towards the end of the video, an unidentified man in yellow suit, also equipped with jet-propelled wings, appears.
The Daily Mail reports that a spokesman for Jetman said the Dubai video was only an “appetizer” for “something bigger and louder” to come in 2015. But he declined to give details about the nature of the “bigger and louder” thing to come.
“Yves Rossy became the first man in the history of aviation to fly with a jet-propelled wing… Yves has always dedicated himself to experimental flight in all its forms. His dream has always been to fly in the purest form possible by minimizing the constraints of enclosure in an aircraft shell.”
This is not the first time that Jetman has taken to the skies with his wings. He completed a flight over the Swiss Alps and Lake Geneva in 2002. In 2008, he crossed the English Channel, 99 years after the first crossing by air. In 2012, he flew in formation with a Breitling Douglas DC-3 over Switzerland’s Lake Lucerne. He has also flown over the Grand Canyon and Rio De Janiero’s Christ the Redeemer. Last year he flew over Japan’s Mount Fuji.
Since then he has further developed his wings to include an altimeter and a hand-held throttle control.
“He developed his first real wing, comprising a rigid harness integrated into inflatable wing panels that he strapped to his back. The next step was towards maintaining and gaining altitude by improving efficiency with a rigid wing and adding propulsion. This achievement was the culmination of 10 years of development and more than 15 prototypes. The only instrumentation he had was altimeter and a hand-held throttle.”
According to Jetman’s website, he was the first man to ever fly with jet-propelled wings, a 2006 achievement that earned him a Guinness world record title.
