NO MORE REGISTRATIONS, TICKETS AND STEWARDS. SHEIKH HAMDAN BEN MUHAMMED AL MAKTUM OPENING THE ERU OF PORTABLE AIRCRAFT AND THE ONE WHO ALL NAME USE JETMEN.
Accustomed to the combined shootings, the viewer is unlikely to believe that James Bond flew live in the 1965 ball lightning film. And yet it is. True, the Bell jetpack during the filming was not worn on Sean Connery personally, but on his understudy, professional pilot Bill Sutor. In 1984, the same brave pilot with a “jet pack” behind him flew over the stands at the opening of the Los Angeles Olympics, pretty much alarmed Ronald Reagan and all the other spectators. Until today, the device of the jet pack has not fundamentally changed. Two cylinders with hydrogen peroxide, one with nitrogen, a catalyst from ordinary potassium permanganate, a mixer, two rotary nozzles - and here it is, a jet stream gushing violently gushing as a result of a chemical reaction, capable of raising a person by 30 m and moving it a quarter kilometer at a speed of about 100 km / h
The pleasure lasts only half a minute, after which the fuel runs out. Despite the fact that the first tests of the jet pack took place in the United States a week after the flight of Yuri Gagarin, and the simplicity of construction, the military, civilians and scientists have not significantly progressed since then. For this reason, the jetpack was not widely used either in the army or in commerce. And the idea of portable aviation did not receive further development, not only because of a lack of technology, but mainly because of a lack of demand. And craving for flight was more than offset by personal and public air transport. That was until recently ...
Man plane
Oversaturation of megacities is what became the prerequisite for a revolutionary situation in aeronautics. The nascent “portfolio” aviation is currently undergoing an incubation period, but the shell of the concepts one after another is cracking loudly. Quite viable chicks of existing prototypes are born and spread their wings, blades, diffusers, tiltroters and fenestrons - in general, everything that is needed to successfully overcome gravity.
Settled in Dubai, the Swiss pilot Yves Rossi, nicknamed Jetman ("Jetman"), can rightfully be considered a pioneer in this direction. Rossi has already managed to cross the English Channel, the Alps, fly over Fujiyama nine times at one gas station and even get around the rally Skoda in last year’s Top Gear program. And all this - on an aircraft of its own design, most resembling a hang glider with jet engines. The invention of Yves Rossi is considered the stage of further evolutionary development of the jetpack idea. At least, two main signs of this idea are observed: free flight and four P-200 turbojet engines operating on aviation kerosene. These turbines, by the way, cost five and a half thousand dollars each and are made by the German company JetCat, which specializes in engines for large-scale models of aircraft and helicopters. At the same time, the thrust of such an engine is far from children's - on the Jetman afterburner it can accelerate to 200 km / h. By trial and error, the former fighter pilot and pilot of the Airbus Yves Rossi found that there would be not enough two turbines for his aircraft, and six is already too much.
The two-meter delta-shaped carbon wing was initially extendable, but in the name of rigidity, it was decided to abandon it. Here, fundamental differences with the concept of a jet pack are already beginning. Firstly, Wendel Moore and his followers developed the concept of launching from the ground, and Rossi started as a sky-surfer, that is, he hopped down from a hot air balloon basket, from a biplane wing and later from a helicopter cockpit. Secondly, even the most “sophisticated” jetpack did not have a parachute, and Rossi had it, even two. Descent by parachute of the entire device together with the pilot is for Jetman the usual procedure for completing a flight.
And thirdly, this “man-plane” managed to stretch the time spent in free flight (not in the fall, namely in flight in all three dimensions) by an order of magnitude. If in 2004, when testing the prototype, it was considered successful to stay in the air for five minutes, now the average flight time of the Jetman is 10 minutes. By the way, in his interviews, the inventor does not exclude the possibility that someday his Jetman will learn to independently rise from the earth's surface. 10 years that have passed since the test day of the first prototype were devoted to the flight itself. Now everything is in order with this, you can do the start.
Jetman and Crown Prince
Having tried 15 prototypes in 10 years and finally convinced of the reliability of his device, Rossi started a company. “Flying alone is great, but the two of them are even more interesting,” the record holder said, inviting Hungarian air acrobat Veres Zoltan to a pair flight over Dubai. The joint flight of the Jetman and the MXS sports single-seat propeller airplane took place within the framework of the Dubai Airshow 2014, 100,000 people watched the 4K video shot on this occasion on the very first day, and literally a week later the 43rd anniversary of the United Arab Emirates was celebrated. Jetman was also noted in the series of festive events - this time, a unique flying vehicle painted with the colors of the state flag in company with Yves Rossi decided to pilot none other than His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, crown prince of Dubai. Using the terminology of military pilots, the Crown Prince of Dubai acted as the leader, Rossi as the slave, the link successfully started, "danced" and landed. Having proved to those who still doubt that the era of portable aviation, predicted in theory by the Swedish storyteller Astrid Lindgren, has finally arrived.
Yves Rossi
- Born on August 27, 1959 in Switzerland.
- He served in military intelligence aircraft, piloted Mirage III, Hawker Hunter and Tiger F-5.
- He worked as a civil aviation pilot at SwissAir, was the captain of the aircraft Douglas, Boeing, Airbus.
- 1996 - twice got into the Guinness Book of Records as the first skyserfer to jump from the top of the balloon's dome and make a flight, holding on to the wings of two biplanes.
- 1999 - jump on a scale model of the Mirage fighter, the beginning of work on the aircraft Jetman, originally with an inflatable wing.
- 2002 - Yves Rossi on a prototype with an inflatable wing makes a 12-kilometer flight over Lake Geneva.
- 2004 - Tests of the Jetman prototype with a folding hard carbon wing and two turbojet engines. The accident at the air show in Al Ain (UAE). In June - a successful 4-minute flight in Switzerland. Yves Rossi patents his invention.
- 2005 - experiments with the number of engines (2, 4, 6). The installation of four turbines is recognized as optimal.
- 2006 - Successful testing of a prototype with a 3-meter folding wing and four JetCat engines. Jetman stayed in the air for 5 minutes 40 seconds.
- 2007 - accident in Bex (Switzerland). Revision of wing design. 2008 - Jetman flies through the Swiss Alps (in May) and the English Channel (in September).
- 2009 - Jetman intercontinental flight from Morocco to Spain. 2012 - at an air show in Becks (Switzerland), Jetman makes a pair flight with the Spitfire-MN 434 fighter and gains the patronage of the Breitling watch brand.
- 2013 - Jetman overtakes the rally car in the Top Gear program (in March) and flies around the crater of the Fuji volcano nine times (in November).
- 2014 - At an air show in Dubai, Jetman performs aerobatics with an MXS turboprop aircraft under the control of Veres Zoltan. The first ever Jetman pair flight — Yves Rossi and His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Muhammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai.
