morrieD asked:


ENGLISH TRANSLATION HERE (I’m not l337 enuf to do subtitles :) The Jet Man, Yves Rossy, a former Swiss military pilot, designed and built a deployable 3-meter wing, holding kerosene fuel for 2 jet engines (as of May 2008 FOUR turbines on a 2.5m wing!!) fixed to the tips and attached it to his back. Rossy launched from an airplane and flew for 4 minutes, traveling over 100 mph, landing by parachute. http://www.jet-man.com/prod/index_en.html
OK here’s my attempt at translation (if you can, please correct!):
00:16 (VIDEO START)
00:20 (German) Further, further away from the car
00:22 Yes
00:24 (French) Towards the drain
00:25 There?
00:26 Yep
00:33 (’SCOTLAND THE BRAVE’ RINGTONE)
00:48 So, the idea is, as we see here, there’s the fuel, the smoke cartridges, and the jet engines underneath, for horizontal flight.
01:00 In fact, the Flying Jet Man, that’s the idea. And to do that we’ve developed this folding wing, taking into account the space available in the plane, because we don’t have much space. A wing of 3 meters would not fit in the plane without being folding.
01:19 It’s nearly a mini-airplane, except that, well, I’m the fuselage. So there’s fuel, batteries, gas for starting the jet engines, oil is in the kerosene for lubricating the engine. I have a little handle for moving the ailerons so I can go up and down, so I’ve got all the controls just like a plane, and like I said I’m the fuselage with two jet engines up my backside!
01:56 The goal - horizontal flight. That’s it.
03:08 (START ENGINES IN PLANE, WINGS FOLDED)
03:23 (JUMP)
04:27 (PARACHUTE OPENS)
04:50 (LANDING, WINGS FOLDED)
04:52 (excited) I had a fantastic exit from the plane, that’s already a good start, because the wings don’t open symmetrically, so I’m always a little tense that that will work well, sometimes that creates a little half turn like that, but I’ve exited well, and clunk! I was stable, so that’s already a good start to the flight.
05:08 Physically it feels great, you’re in gliding flight like that, you feel that you’re falling, gliding, that’s already OK, you’re in flight, then you hit the gas, and vroom! bang! you feel how that pushes, and it holds up horizontally, it’s great.
05:26 It’s like there’s a big handle in your back, and the good Lord takes you by it and shoves you through the air, it’s fantastic!!