Earlier today, Yves Rossy, a 49 year old Swiss pilot, jumped from a plane 8,200 feet above Calais, France and rocketed across the English Channel. The 22 mile journey took him less than thirteen minutes, with an average speed of 125 mph. Armed with four tanks of kerosene, the daredevil completed his journey in style and parachuted down to earth near Dover, England.How did he do this, you may ask? He built his own jet propelled wing system. That's right, one step closer to JETPACKS.
Now, why? Rossy explained that he wanted to retrace the path of
Louis Bleriot, who, in 1909, was the first person to fly over the English Channel. French aviator
Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries, an American doctor, where the first to cross the Channel (in the opposite direction, from Dover to Calais) via hot air balloon in 1785. Yves Rossy now joines those ranks as the first man to use jet propulsion to cross the Channel - and in record time, too!
Watch Yves Rossy (aka FusionMan) rocket across the Channel
Video via CBS, courtesy of National Geographic
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