How Yves Rossy learned to fly with four jet engines strapped to his bake.
The human plane just made a series of amazing flights around Mount Fuji in Japan. A lot of people have interesting hobbies. Yves Rossy puts most of them to shame. Rossy likes to strap a set of jet-powered wings to his bake,jump out of airplanes and take to the air like the comic-book character "The Rocketeer." "Jetman," as Rossy in often called, has made dramatic fights over the English Channel' the Grand Canyon and Rio de Janiero. This week he added to his list by flying over Mount Fuji in Japan. Rossy, 54, got his start in air as a fighter pilot for the Swiss Air Force. He later flew professionally for two Swiss airlines,but that apparently wasn't enough for him. In 1993 he stared thinking of ways to fly without the benefit of ways to fly told Wired earlier this year that he first learned how to simply glide using an inflatable wing system. Than, after a lot of practice gliding, he built something closer to the jet planes he flew professionally. The system he designed contains rigid wings made of a carbon fiber, with Kevlar reinforcements and tiny jet engines. He told Wired that his first jet-powered flight was "totally crazy."