Yves Rossy

“When I grow up, I’m going to be pilots. With an “s”. A profession of faith made as a child that was instilled in Yves Rossy the day he found himself on the branch of a tree unable to get down unaided. Today, he has become FusionMan, the first man in the world to attach jet engines to a single wing and fly like Icarus. His story.

With his head in the clouds and his feet on the ground, Yves Rossy followed a technical apprenticeship and then graduated in engineering. An accomplished sportsman, his past and present pastimes include surfing, water-skiing, wakeboarding, skysurfing, parachuting, aerobatics, motorbike riding, rafting and hang-gliding, to name but a few. Flying under a jet wing is the culmination of a 30 year career interspersed with exploits and firsts.

Discovering the Mirage III supersonic fighter plane was certainly one of the high points of Yves Rossy’s career. He flew the aircraft for 15 years while at the same time piloting historic aircraft such as the Hunter and the Venom, one of England’s earliest jet fighters.

In 1991 the idea arose to complete a multi-activity tour of Switzerland in a single day. On 3 July that year he began the day at the controls of a DC-9 and completed the challenge by riding a motorbike, snowboarding, skiing, mountaineering, paragliding, mountain biking, bungee-jumping, flying a helicopter, skydiving and white water rafting, followed by kayaking, driving a racing car, hang-gliding, horse riding, running barefoot, water-skiing, wakeboarding and piloting a speed boat. Not a bad day’s work!

Today, retired from the Air Force, he continues to fly the Hunter two-seater owned by the Amici del Hunter association. A Swiss airlines pilot, he has devoted all his time since February 2007 to his great passion, an independence made possible thanks to the support of Jean-Claude Biver, the boss of Hublot watches.

Treading the beaten track is something for others to do; for Yves Rossy, it’s not an option. He decided to devote all of his spare time to flying in the purest sense.

Yves Rossy carried out more and more tests using equipment developed on a trial and error basis: an inflatable wing which carried him over the 12 kilometres separating the Swiss and French banks of Lake Geneva, a paraglider and a surf board that sent him skimming through Geneva’s water fountain before spectacularly grabbing the handle of a water skier, and a skydiving adventure on a disc “above” the Matterhorn in an image that appears in the book “Cervin, Top model des Alpes”.

But Yves Rossy’s dream goes far beyond these exploits. He wants to fly like a bird, with a minimum of instruments but with the power to steer himself in space. The idea came to him to power a wing using scaled down jet engines.

It was in March 2003 that the first jet engine was ignited at altitude, on the Allalin glacier in Saas Fee, then on board an aircraft. The German company Jet-Cat supplied the engines which were initially attached to an inflatable wing. This method failed because of insufficient rigidity.

In 2004 Yves Rossy developed a rigid deployable wing manufactured from kevlar. The early days were difficult. At the Al-Aïn air show – probably the world’s largest event of its kind – he went into a spin, released the wing and tore his parachute. The craft was partially destroyed. The pilot worked on improving the wing deployment system and the aerodynamics of the wing tips to improve its stability.

In 2005, he completed two successful flights under a wing fitted with two jet engines. A month later, he risked death again as uncontrollable oscillations forced him to release the wing which crashed to the ground.

A long year of hard work and the addition of two additional jet engines were needed for the wing to attain the required level of performance and safety. This was the flight of November 2006, in Bex, a waking dream lasting 5 minutes and 40 seconds.

We would like to thank the folk at Fusionman.ch for their kind permission to print the text and photos featured in this article.

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Bex, May 14th 2008 

Yves “FusionMan” Rossy flies over the Alps:
the bird man makes his first demonstration flight

Yves “FusionMan” Rossy, the first man to fly under a single jet-powered wing, completed his first official demonstration before the international press today at midday. Released from a plane at an altitude of 8,000 feet, he completed a circuit in just over 5 minutes which saw him fly over the Swiss Chablais and neighbouring mountains.  

The spectacle was impressive. Yves Rossy leapt from the plane with his wing folded, then deployed his craft and began the flight proper. He made several “figure of eights” above spectators aware of being present at an exceptional event. At the end of the flight FusionMan deployed his parachute, folded the wing and landed safely at Bex airdrome.  

The fusion of technology, body and mind
Yves Rossy represents the intensely close relationship between the development of a technology, a body honed to perfection which he uses to steer his craft, and a mind attuned to split-second coordination of flight parameters. The only instruments available to Yves Rossy are a throttle and an audible altimeter. Otherwise he flies like a bird, using only his body to change direction. The name FusionMan reflects this synergy of diverse skills that has made a dream come true.

Future developments
This 14th of May marks the first official step in developing the wing designed by Yves Rossy. Thanks to the support of Jean-Claude Biver, the boss of Hublot watches, the pilot can devote more of his time to his passion and its future development. Some exploits are likely to leave a lasting impression: the first release from a hot air balloon, the first flight in formation or the first “loop the loop” are just some of the pioneering feats that FusionMan is hoping to accomplish over the coming months. The Channel crossing is scheduled for next autumn. Powered by scaled down Jet-Cat engines, his aircraft has exceptional potential in terms of flying time and range, safety and handling.