

Yves Rossy: Fly with the Jetman

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Text: Jetman - Yves Rossy

Grand Canyon


Text: Wind tunnel tests




Text: Swiss Alps

Strait of Gibraltar crossing

English Channel crossing

Commentator: There he goes. There is Yves Rossy. And I think the wing is open, the wing is open. So our first critical moment, it's open. He is down. Is he flying?


Commentator: There's that 90 degree turn you're talking about, taking him out. He's out over the channel. There is Yves Rossy. There is no turning back now. He is over the English Channel and underway. Ladies and gentlemen, an historic flight has begun.

Commentator Two: And what he's going to do as he approaches the ground is pull down on those toggles to flare, slow himself down just a little bit, and then come in for a nice landing.

Commentator: There he is. Yves Rossy has landed in England.

Bruno Giussani: And now he's in Edinburgh. Yves Rossy. (Applause) And his equipment as well.


Yves Rossy: It's fun. It's fun. (Laughter) I don't have feathers. But I feel like a bird sometimes. It's really an unreal feeling, because normally you have a big thing, a plane, around you. And when I strap just these little harnesses, this little wing, I really have the feeling of being a bird.

BG: How did you start to become Jetman?

YR: It was about 20 years ago when I discovered free falling. When you go out of an airplane you are almost naked. You take a position like that. And especially when you take a tracking position, you have the feeling that you are flying. And that's the nearest thing to the dream. You have no machine around you. You are just in the element. It's very short and only in one direction. So the idea was, okay, keep that feeling of freedom, but change the vector and increase the time.



BG: And what's the weight of the equipment you're carrying?


BG: And you're not piloting? There is no handle, no steering nothing? It is purely your body, and the wings become part of the body and vice versa?



YR: Actually, I try to stay just fit. I don't do special physical training. Just, I try to keep my mobility through new activities. For example, last winter I began with kite surfing -- so new things. So you have to adapt. Because this is -- I'm quite an experienced manager of systems as a pilot, but this is really -- you need fluidity, you need to be agile and also to adapt really fast.

BG: Somebody in the audience asked me, "How does he breathe up there?" because you're going fast and you're up 3,000 meters or so.


BG: Describe for me the equipment since you have it here. So Breitling's four engines.

YR: Yeah, two-meter span. Ultrastable profile. Four little engines, 22 kilos thrust each, turbines working with kerosene. Harness, parachute. My only instruments are [an] altimeter and time. I know I have about eight minutes fuel. So just check before it's finished. (Laughter) And yeah, that's all. Two parachutes. That means, if I have a problem with the first one I pull, I still have the possibility to open the second one. And this is my life. That's the real important thing about safety. I did use that during these last 15 years about 20 times -- never with that type of wing, but at the beginning. I can release my wing when I am in a spin or unstable.


YR: Yeah. I did try in [the] clouds, but you lose [orientation completely]. So I did try to take, again, a climb altitude. I thought, okay, I will go out. But most probably I did something like that.

BG: Something that is not very safe in image.





YR: Yeah. I have no checklist for that.

BG: Let's not tell you employer.


BG: It's well said. It's well said. What happens if one of the engines stops?

YR: I do a roll. And then I stabilize, and according to my altitude, I continue on two or three engines. It's sometimes possible -- it's quite complicated to explain -- but according to which regime I was, I can continue on two and try to get a nice place to land, and then I open my parachute.


YR: It was down on the bottom. And I came back afterward on the sled of the helicopter back. But it was too stoney and full of cactus on top.

BG: That's exactly why I asked the question.


BG: So I think that right now, many people in the audience are asking, "Okay, when are you developing a double-seater so they can fly with you?"


BG: Perfect answer. (Applause) Yves, one last question. What's next for you? What's next for Jetman?


BG: So instead of jumping off a plane, yes?


BG: Yves, thank you very much. Yves Rossy.


Video Details

Duration: 14 minutes and 28 seconds
Country: United States
Language: English
Genre: None
Producer: TEDTalks
Director: TED.com
Views: 471
Posted by: tedtalks on Nov 10, 2011


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