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Title: Swiss man flies like a bird
Source:
World Radio Switzerland
URL Source: http://www.worldradio.ch/wrs/news/s ... -flies-like-a-bird.shtml?10774
Published: May 15, 2008
Author: Alex Helmick
Post Date: 2008-05-28 13:57:27 by Tauzero
Keywords: None
Views: 61
Comments: 1
A Swiss man took to the skies Wednesday but not with a plane. He used a jet pack of sorts. Yves Rossy is a airline pilot, who’s spent more than a year trying to become the first man to fly using a single jet-powered wing. World Radio Switzerland’s Alex Helmick caught up with Rossy, who calls himself Fusionman, at the first ever demonstration. By Alex Helmick, World Radio Switzerland If you’re going to watch a man fly passed you with a rocket on his back, you might want to go to a mountain top about 2,000 meters high. You’ll probably need a helicopter to get there. Dozens of journalists were there, Ives Rossy’s sponsors, even his mother. Everyone waited with anticipation, Rossy an Airbus airline pilot who had been working on a jet pack prototype was making his official debut as Fusionman. He jumps from a plane at about 8,000 meters then kicks on his four engines and flies. He made three passes at about 300 km/h and even included a roll. IVES ROSSY: It was really great fun and a great success. That’s Rossy after the flight. He landed safely and was elated, much like his sponsor, Jean-Claude Biver. He’s the CEO of watchmaker HUBLOT. JEAN-CLAUDE BIVER: I felt proud about him. I felt proud for him. I felt proud for his mother because I was next to his mother. It is such an emotion. Biver says he’s set to spend more than a million francs on the project. The wing itself cost about 80,000 francs. A one day demonstration on a mountaintop for all those journalists cost about 60,000 francs and how does Rossy pay the bills? Biver’s taken care of that. Rossy’s on the Hublot payroll. So what’s next? ROSSY: I would be happy that it becomes a sport. As I said before, like air jet ski. You see at the beginning the jet ski didn’t exist. Now around the planet there ar so many. I think it is for everybody… HELMICK:OK. ROSSY: …even my grandmother. HELMICK: You say your grandmother? At 300 km/h? 3,000 meters high? On one of these, come on. ROSSY: OK. No, perhaps that is a little bit extreme. (laughs) but a guy with a good experience as a skydiver, actually. HELMICK: You ever going to go back to flying regular old planes? ROSSY: That’s my job. I am an airline pilot, captain on Airbus, but it is so different. This is real action and it goes in the direction of the dream. I love flying so it goes in the right direction of the dream. Dreams, a word that around Rossy comes up quite often. BIVER: Flying is a dream. It is a dream of kids. Look at kids how they look at planes. We are adults and we still have this dream and when we see a man flying everyone would stop and, you know, and look at it. So a dream comes true. It’s a unique thing. Alex Helmick, World Radio Switzerland in Bex.
Swiss man flies like a bird
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