Weather permitting, Friday May 6, Yves Rossy, strapped to his roughly six-foot, four micro-turbine-powered, carbon composite wing will make his attempt to negotiate a section of the Grand Canyon, in Arizona, according to Popular Science. The flight will reportedly take place somewhere in the Canyon’s western area and could pass within 700 feet of spectators, but the exact route has not yet been announced. This flight, like Rossy’s previous flights across the English Channel and over Lake Geneva, will launch from an aircraft and land via parachute. Rossy’s rig and his control over it have evolved since he first flew the wing in 2006. In November of 2010, Rossy looped and rolled a 2-meter rig after jumping from a balloon at 7,875 feet. And we have the video to prove it.
Through its evolution, Rossy’s rig has been powered by JetCat microturbines that together are capable of about 200 pounds of thrust. Not all of the “Jetman’s” attempts have been successful. An early attempt to fly the Straight of Gibraltar in 2009 ended with a swim in the North Atlantic. For that trip, his rig was configured so that he could separate from the wings and parachute down without them, which is what he ended up doing. Rossy was rescued by helicopter from the sea and his rig was collected by the Spanish Coast Guard. The planned attempt in May will be Rossy’s first U.S. flight.
