LONDON, May 15, 2008

Rocket Man Feels Wind Beneath His Wings

Swiss Airline Pilot Designs, Flies, Real-Life Ironman Rocket-Wings Above Alps

  • Play CBS Video Video Man Takes Flight

    "CBS News RAW": With four jet turbines strapped to his body, extreme sports enthusiast Yves Rossy, 48, dropped out of a plane at 7,500 feet and embarked on a human flight over the Swiss Alps.

    • Yves Rossy, known as the 'Fusion Man,' flies with a jet-powered single wing.

      Yves Rossy, known as the 'Fusion Man,' flies with a jet-powered single wing.  (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

    • Yves Rossy, known as the 'Fusion Man,' flies with a jet-powered single wing.

      Yves Rossy, known as the 'Fusion Man,' flies with a jet-powered single wing.  (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

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  • Photo Essay Rocket Man Takes Flight

    Swiss man takes his first public flight with his self-made flying contraption.

(CBS)  Stepping off an airplane 7,500 feet above Lake Geneva, and, look, up in the sky it's Yves Rossy. He's a 48-year-old Swiss airline pilot, soaring 185 mph strapped to jet-powered wings, CBS News correspondent Richard Roth reports.

"I don't steer it, I fly it," Rossy said. "It's like a child playing airplane, like that, exactly like this. It's totally intuitive."

"Pure flight," he calls it. Like flying in an airplane - without the airplane.

"You're almost naked. You have just this little thing on your back, and moving your body it turns, it flies, it climbs," he said. "Its like something artificial - but it's real."

And if Rossy's achievement isn't quite a giant leap for mankind, it certainly does look as if life's imitating pop culture.

But in Hollywood's current blockbuster take on manned flight without an airplane - starring Ironman as a very high-tech Icharus - there's a lesson: don’t try this without a movie studio.

The Internet is full of proof that it's a warning that goes widely ignored.

Rossy, too, has had what he calls some "whoops" moments in the first five years spent developing his fold-up carbon-fiber wings, powered by four jet engines designed to fly model planes.

What drives him is a passion about flight.

"It's not a dream; I'm here, I'm flying like I wanted in my head as a kid," he said.

His ambition now, he says, is to fly 22 miles across the English Channel … and to go see the movie this weekend.


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Add a Comment
by May 16, 2008 1:29 PM EDT
This sounds soo cool!! I wish I could buy one!!!
Reply to this comment
by fuzzybear9 May 16, 2008 1:22 PM EDT
Hello German Police

``
Can you imagine what the military applications could be. I''''m sure there are all branches of the armed forces from all over the world looking at this thing.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by dvillegas43 at 10:42 PM : May 15, 2008

``


now do you see my point,
the Liberla Socialist Americans headed by Ted Kennedy a black caccus war monger against White People is just waiting at Hawvard University for the first chance to Steal, STEAL,
German Science.
This blaitant disregard for the White European community must stop.
Stop Rossy from showing off,
These Liberals are already planning on ways to Steal and use espionage to get the latest German Science.
this must not be allowed, its time to Close the Borders of Switzerland, Austria, and Germany and ask these American Journalist to mind their own buisness, and please do not come back.

sincerely Fuzzy BEar
Reply to this comment
by fuzzybear9 May 16, 2008 1:11 PM EDT
Hello German Viewers

``
"I don''t steer it, I fly it," Rossy said. "It''s like a child playing airplane, like that, exactly like this. It''s totally intuitive."

"Pure flight," he calls it. Like flying in an airplane - without the airplane.

"You''re almost naked. You have just this little thing on your back, and moving your body it turns, it flies, it climbs," he said. "Its like something artificial - but it''s real."
``


Again Rossy is showing off, he just cann`t help himself.
and once again German science is being pilfered by the all watching Liberal Socialist Elietist waiting for the first signs of discovery.
this type of blaitent disregard for German Science must stop.
we need the German Police to request that ROSSY NOT FLY HIS INVENTION AROUND THE WORLD LIKE A SHOW OFF
and not allow these American Journalist into Switzerland to look for anymore German Science.
P.S. After 100 years of Pilfering the Hawvard Colledge Americans just assume that German Science is for their taking. Please stop.

sincerely vunderstadt Bear
Fuzzy
Reply to this comment
by commentator8 May 16, 2008 6:52 AM EDT
This looks likes more fun than anyone with any sense of adventure could even imagine !
As a matter of fact there is already a similar unpowered stealth device made for high altitude parachute jumps. It is intended to increase the soldier''s radius of operation so it will not be necessary to fly the jump plane over or even near the target.
Reply to this comment
by neoconrcrazy May 16, 2008 6:21 AM EDT
Maybe we can get bush/cheney to test fly this thing over an active volcano?

Reply to this comment
by dvillegas43-2009 May 16, 2008 1:42 AM EDT
Can you imagine what the military applications could be. I''m sure there are all branches of the armed forces from all over the world looking at this thing.
Reply to this comment

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