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The Harrier right after it landed. Note the distortion from the thrust behind the plane. This is...(more)
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A view of the Airbus A300 (and the main plaza/square) while an airshow performer does his thing...(more)
Here's a new version of an old trick. Jetpacks and personal flying have been around and in science-fiction for decades, but they've always been cumbersome, limited, and never the reality imagined. Yves Rossy, an accomplished skydiver, took a basic idea of "What would happen if I strap 4 model-airplane rocket engines to myself?" and added the constraint of "And how can I live to do this repeatedly?" The result is his "Jetman" show. And this is the first time he's done it in the US.
He's got a delta-wing on his back with 4 controllable model-airplane jet engines attached to it. A helicopter takes him up to 6500 feet above the airport as he stands on one of its skids, he starts his engines (which are controllable), then does a back-flip dive off the helicopter, picks up speed, and at around 160-190 knots, starts flying. He's got enough fuel to fly for about 8-10 minutes. And at the end, he deploys a parachute and lands. The whole rig, wing, engines, and Yves, weights about 200 lbs.
Normally, he'd fly closer to the ground, but the FAA required him to be high off the ground to do his show. It was unfortunate, since it was hard to see him as more than a tiny triangle against the clouds and sky. The FAA basically considered him a jet and had crazy restrictions, like he could not carry passengers, disgorge skydivers, and must have 30 minutes of reserve fuel. I think they didn't understand that he was a person, not a plane (it's the second half of the word "jetman" that must've been the tricky part for them). Still, it was pretty neat to see. He had a camera attached to the end of a wing and it broadcast a live feed that was shown on some big jumbotron screens on the ground, so even when he wasn't visible, spectators could see something. When I lost him in the sky, I'd just look around at the audience and fairly soon a few people would start pointing in a general area in the sky, and I'd pick him up again (and then I'd point to help others).
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I'll be in my trailer! The truck that carried his equipment and was also a shop for them to work...(more)
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The big speck is the helicopter, 6500 feet up in the air. The smaller speck is Yves, right after...(more)
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Spot the dot (in the thumbnail). I'ts not a spec of dust on the monitor, but the jetmat at 6500...(more)
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After about 10 minutes, once his fuel runs out, he opens his chute. The helicopter was nearby in...(more)
