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Rocket Daredevil to Cross English Channel on Jet Pack

by Terrence O'Brien on September 25, 2008 at 01:02 PM



Swiss lunatic flying enthusiast, Yves Rossy, is planning an attempt to become the first person to cross the English Channel with a jet pack strapped to his body. Here's how it will go down: Rossy plans to drop himself from an airplane over 8,000 feet above Calais, France, fire up the kerosene firing engines on his home-made (seriously?) jet pack, and fly across the famous body of water at up to 187 miles-per-hour. His flight will end in Dover, England, following the path of Louis Bleriot, the first man to fly across the Channel in an airplane.

For protection, Yves will wear a crash helmet (though we're not entirely sure how that is going to protect him if he plummets from 8,000 feet) and a heat-proof suit to protect him from the exhaust of the engines. The flight will be aired, tomorrow (Friday, September 26), live on National Geographic and at Nationalgeographic.com.

Rossy, whose day job is flying passenger jets for Swiss Air, first flew one of his dangerous personal rocket wings back in 2006 and has been practicing with this latest version over the Alps in preparation for his trans-European flight. If his flight is successful, he hopes to build a lighter weight, higher thrust version that will allow for vertical take-off and plans to market it to other aviation enthusiasts. We're already taking bets for how many people die in the first year it's available. [From: Telegraph]

Tags: breaking news, BreakingNews, english channel, EnglishChannel, flying, fusion man, FusionMan, jet man, jet pack, JetMan, JetPack, rocket pack, RocketPack

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