Rocketman ditches in ocean
Rocketman ditches in ocean
A Swiss adventurer trying to soar from Morocco to Spain on jet-powered wings ditched safely into the Atlantic on Wednesday after hitting turbulence and clouds so thick he could not tell if he was flying up or down. The bad weather — rather than a mechanical malfunction, as reported earlier by the project's sponsors — thwarted Yves Rossy's bid to become the first person to achieve such an intercontinental crossing.
Rossy waved from the cold blue sea while awaiting rescue, his red wing and striped parachute floating beside him. In time, a rescuer helicopter winched him from the wind-swept waters to safety.
"I am still here — a little bit wet but I am still here," told a news conference after undergoing a medical checkup, still wearing his red and white flying suit. "I did my best," he said.
Rossy, a 50-year-old former fighter pilot, took off from Tangiers but a few minutes into what was supposed to be a 15-minute flight he vanished from TV screens providing live footage from planes and choppers accompanying him. For a good 10 minutes, no one knew where he was.
Rossy said that about three or four minutes into the flight he hit turbulence and entered clouds that he described as beautiful but disorienting because he could not see and had no reference points.
He tried to climb over the cloud cover "but before the blue came again" his flying became unstable. Eventually he found himself wobbling and dropping at up to 300 kilometers per hour until he was just 850 meters above the water. At that rate he would have hit it in about 20 seconds.
"So the sea comes very fast," he said. "Unstable, at this height, there is no playing anymore. So I throw away my wing and opened my parachute."
Rossy said he was disappointed but will keep doing this kind of flight — he did the English Channel last year — and plans to take on the Grand Canyon next spring with an upgraded wing he is now completing.
"I love to fly and to fly like this is freedom," he said. "The emotions are so strong you become addicted."
Things started off fine. As planned, Rossy stood on the ledge of an open door on the small plane that took him into the air, and jumped, deploying the wing and plummeting about 500 meters until he upped his thrust and gained flight at a cruising speed of 220 kilometers per hour (130 miles per hour) at an altitude was 1,950 meters (6,500 feet).
The wing has no steering mechanism. Rossy guides it by shifting his weight.
He banked sharply left at first, and strong winds buffeted him. At one point he flew through clouds and was lost from sight. Below him, a ferry sailed from Morocco to Spain.
His endeavor had been billed as the first intercontinental crossing by man using jet-powered wings — over the North Atlantic between Africa and Europe.
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- Posted on November 27, 2009
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I CAN NOT BELIEVE MY EYES!!!!!!!!!!! Man can fly, I always dreamed of flying. I would fly to school, to my house, to my friends house, I would fly everywhere in the world!
I got one thing to say don't die dude thats all i got to say but it is cool at the same time i wanna try it now. :)
i remember this man from a science magazine how he made flight. he said that the sea was cold as he waited to be saved by a medical helicopter. he said that he had to ditch his wings and pull his parachute. when you fall out of the sky there is now messing around because it could be life or death. but he is going to try to make the grand canyon soon. but first he has to wait for the parts to get to his shop before he can start.
man that is so cool i which i could fly i would be the best of the best i can fly every were i would want to and pick up a water balloon and droop it down and see how it happens
That is just awesome! I would not do it but it sounds really fun! This man is crazy though...... I like it! The only problem is that there is no steering mechanism in the wings which would cause problems. I also don't like how a person has to shift their weight that would get super tiring fast! Would you do this?
This is such a neat thing! I would love to be able to fly with a jet pack for about 15 minutes, it is like something out of a sci-fi movie. It is sad that he had to land in the ocean and not complete his journey, but it is still amazing that he was in the air for as long as he was. I hope someday I get the chance to fly on a jet pack.
wow thats awsome i wish i can fly with the rocket wings i would look like a little airplane and dive to the ocean it would be so freakin awsome.
i think it would be so cool to have a jet pack but i would not want to fly across the ocean so if i crashed i would not be in the ocean
Is it a bird? A plane? No, its Rocketman! I think its very awesome to be able to fly in the atmosphere for up to 15 minutes. Maybe this person could share this technology with the world. Everybody would be zooming around in the air pretending to be superman. Hopefully, this person upgrades his wings and someday we can all be rocket people!
omg that jetpack thing is so cool its like being a living mothman just add red eyes and cool wing and your a fake mistical monster update mothman is a monster that has red giant eyes and can reach unimaginable speeds but thing about being up there in the sky feeling the clouds on your face wow also how much do u think one of those costs