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Not A Bird, Not A Plane, It’s Flight of the Jet Man!: Swiss Adventurer Yves Rossy Successfully Crosses English Channel Using a Single, Jet-Propelled Wing

Written by thomas · Filed Under Aeronautics News 

September 26, 2008

thomas

National Geographic Channel’s Flight of the Jet Man, Covering Every
Aspect of This Historic Moment in Aviation, Premieres Tonight, Friday,
Sept. 26, at 8 PM ET/PT

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Today, at 8:19 a.m. ET,
Yves “FusionMan” Rossy successfully completed an amazing challenge and
became the first man to fly across the English Channel from Calais, France,
to Dover, U.K., using a homemade, single, jet-powered wing. FusionMan
covered a distance of 23 miles in 13 minutes.

Tonight, Friday, Sept. 26, at 8 p.m. ET/PT, National Geographic
Channel’s (NGC) Flight of the Jet Man covers every aspect of this historic
moment in aviation, from the intense preparation over the last several
months to the moment Yves jumped out of a plane in France to head for
England. A major media event this morning all over the world, the NGC
special goes behind the scenes with all the details on what made this
morning’s flight possible.

Swiss adventurer Yves traced the route of French aviator Louis Bleriot,
who became the first person to fly across the English Channel in an
airplane 99 years ago. Beginning his journey at Calais Airport, Yves Rossy
was transported in a plane almost two miles above the ground, at which
point he started his four engines. Then, at 8:06 a.m. ET, Yves jumped out
of the plane above Calais. Once his wing stabilized, FusionMan began his
flight, traveling full throttle, heading for the United Kingdom.

With a light wind at his back, he reached the South Foreland Lighthouse
on the iconic White Cliffs of Dover in 13 minutes, covering the 23-mile
trip at an average speed of 120 mph. When the White Cliffs of Dover finally
appeared, Yves deployed his parachute and landed at 8:19 a.m. ET.

Speaking of his historic feat, the elated Yves said, “So many people
were with me on that flight, I want to say thank you … everything was
perfect. I show that it is possible to fly a little bit like a bird.”

Cameras in his launch plane and on a helicopter, supplemented by
another mounted on the jetpack wing captured every dramatic angle
throughout the flight.

This achievement followed many months of preparation and numerous test
flights. Only one of his test flights lasted longer than eight minutes.
Yves spent much of his time concentrating on wing modifications to increase
its performance. He conducted a wind tunnel test and identified ways to add
more fuel and develop a better engine ignition system, all of which made
crossing the English Channel possible.

The flight across the Channel was broadcast live and exclusively by
National Geographic Channel in 164 countries and was also streamed live
online at http://www.natgeotv.com/jetman. In the United States, tonight’s Flight
of the Jet Man at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NGC features all of the footage from
Rossy’s flight along with the behind-the-scenes story and preparation.

A crucial step has been achieved today. Yves Rossy will be continuing
the adventure. His next challenges? Flying over the Grand Canyon, taking
off from the ground, sharing his passion on a patrol flight and especially
continuing to develop his wing in order and make it lighter and easier to
handle. The ultimate dream? To be able to perform acrobatics and have even
more freedom and pleasure during the flight.

Flight of the Jet Man is produced for National Geographic Channel and
National Geographic Channels International by Cirrus Communications. Andre
Barro from Cirrus and Bernard Vaillot from Galaxie Productions are the
executive producers. Kathryn Liptrott is the producer for Cirrus. For
NGC-US, the executive producer is Kathleen Cromley and executive vice
president of content is Steve Burns. For NGCI, the executive producer is
Stephen Hunter for NGCI and the executive vice president of content is
Sydney Suissa.

About National Geographic Channel

Based at the National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington,
D.C., the National Geographic Channel (NGC) is a joint venture between
National Geographic Ventures (NGV) and Fox Cable Networks (FCN). Since
launching in January 2001, NGC initially earned some of the fastest
distribution growth in the history of cable and more recently the fastest
ratings growth in television. The network celebrated its fifth anniversary
January 2006 with the launch of NGC HD which provides the spectacular
imagery that National Geographic is known for in stunning high-definition.
NGC has carriage with all of the nation’s major cable and satellite
television providers, making it currently available to nearly 69 million
homes. For more information, please visit http://www.natgeotv.com.

SOURCE National Geographic Channel

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