Fusion Man

2008-06-20T07:50:00.001-07:00

Fusion Man Video

2008-05-15T05:47:00.001-07:00

Swiss ‘Fusion Man’ info

2008-05-15T05:46:00.000-07:00

Years ago, aviation enthusiast and inventor Yves Rossy dreamed of soaring through the sky like a bird. In 2006 that dream took flight.

Known as Switzerland’s “Fusion Man,” Rossy in November 2006 became the first man in the world to fly with wings and four jet engines strapped to his body.

The flight lasted six minutes in Bex, Switzerland, and included an emergency parachute programmed to automatically open if he were to black out, NBC11 reported at the time.

“The idea is to have fun, not to kill yourself,” Rossy said in the story.

Wearing a white helmet with the words “Jet-Man” on the front, Rossy dives out of a plane, fires up his red wings and propels through the atmosphere, leaving a trail of white smoke in his wake.

These days the former Swiss air force fighter pilot can be seen making figure eights over the Swiss Alps during his days off from work as an Airbus pilot for Swiss International Air Lines.

Fusion Man

2008-05-10T05:39:00.000-07:00

Fusion man video 1

2008-04-16T12:33:00.000-07:00

Fusion Man

2008-04-09T10:29:00.000-07:00

A Swiss rocket man has become the first person to fly with nothing but a wing and a jet engine strapped to his back, hurtling above the Alps at 300km/h.

Adrenalin junkie Yves Rossy, a former military pilot and current Airbus commander for Swiss International Air Lines, was dropped from a plane at 2,438 metres (8,000ft). After unfolding his wing, Rossy soared through the Alps at 180mph (300km/h), putting on an aerobatic display for fans who had made the trip.

Ten minutes later, with his name in the record books, Rossy deployed his parachute, folded the lightweight carbon wing and landed at the Bex airdrome.

Speaking to Reuters after his flight, Rossy said: "Happiness, an extraordinary sense of fullness to have once again been able to fly and mostly to show it, because it's one thing to do it on one's own, but to be able to share it live like today, that's extraordinary."

The successful demonstration was the result of years of research by the modern-day Icarus, who unsuccessfully tested his first jet engine attached to an inflatable wing in March 2003.

He developed his first rigid wing a year later, and completed his first successful flight in 2005, with two jet engines fixed under the wing. A safe prototype was achieved in 2006, allowing him a 5min 40sec flight – sufficient time for a few acrobatics.

British fans of the self-styled "Fusion Man" will be able to see him in action this autumn when he attempts a Channel crossing.