Ever Dream You Could Fly? 'Jetman' Has. Let Him Tell You About It
This is the first story in an occasional series exploring gadgets that can give you real-life superpowers.
Summer is the season of superhero movies. Coming soon to a theater near you: Fantastic Four and Ant-Man.
It's common to have a favorite superhero, but what about a favorite superpower? There's invisibility, super strength, mind reading and more. But what if you could take your favorite superpower and make it reality?
Yves Rossy, sometimes called Jetman, has been trying to fly like a superhero for the last 20 years.
"It's kind of unreal because normally, as a human, you fall. So it's a very good feeling. You are like in a parallel world that normally doesn't exist. It's beautiful," he says.
Rossy pretty much flies like Superman — horizontal, hundreds of feet in the air — but instead of a cape, he uses 7-foot-long wings and four engines.
When he flies, he goes up 7,000 feet in a helicopter.
And jumps.
"First, you fall like a stone and as you are getting speed this element — air — becomes more and more consistent, like water," he says.
For 10 minutes, Rossy knows what it is to fly.
Rossy and his protege, Vincent Reffet, both started out as skydivers.
They loved the air and the rush, but they wanted more. They wanted to know what it was like to fly like a bird.
Rossy and his protege, Vincent Reffet, fly over Dubai's Palm Island.
So they went from skydiving to jet packs.
Reffet says the technology is pretty simple. But you can't just strap on wings. First you need to learn how to fly.
"If you compare to a bird," Rossy says, "the bird needs to train for weeks so that he becomes strong with his wings, and it's the same for us. You have to train a lot."
Each pack weighs about 120 pounds. For them to stay up longer than 10 minutes, they'd have to add fuel, which would make the packs even heavier.
"So, you cannot give that to my grandmother," Rossy says. "Yet."
He thinks making the packs light is probably the next step. He hopes one day, there will be a way for anyone — including his grandmother — to fly.
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Transcript
LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:
Summer is the season of superhero movies. The latest installment of "The Avengers" is raking it in at the box office. Coming soon are "The Fantastic Four" and "Ant-Man."
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
And all of this got us thinking about what superpowers you might want if you could have them and whether any have gone from fantasy to reality.
WERTHEIMER: This summer, we're exploring some gadgets that can give you real-life superpowers, like flying.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SUPERMAN")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Look up in the sky. It's a bird.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: (As character) It's a plane.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) It's Superman.
WERTHEIMER: From "Superman..."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "IRON MAN")
ROBERT DOWNEY JR: (As Tony Stark) In three, two, one.
WERTHEIMER: ...To "Iron Man..."
(SOUNDBITE OF UNIDENTIFIED FILM)
UNIDENTIFIED NARRATOR: Here's a gadget straight out of science fiction into practicality. The rocket belt is undergoing comprehensive testing by the Army.
WERTHEIMER: ...To actual jetpacks made over half a century ago, humans have dreamed of flying for a very long time. As NPR's Alyssa Edes reports, we may have figured out how to do it.
ALYSSA EDES, BYLINE: Yves Rossy has been trying to fly like a superhero for the last 20 years. Here, he's flying over Dubai at 120 miles per hour.
YVES ROSSY: Radio check. One, two, three, four.
It's kind of unreal because normally, as human, you fall. So it's a very good feeling, you know. You are like in a parallel world that normally doesn't exist. It's beautiful.
EDES: Rossy pretty much flies like Superman - horizontal, hundreds of feet up in the air - but instead of a cape, he uses wings that are seven feet long and four engines. He goes up 7,000 feet in a helicopter and jumps.
ROSSY: First, you fall like a stone, and as you are getting speed, this element, air, becomes more and more consistent, like water.
EDES: For 10 minutes, Rossy knows what it is to fly. He and his protege, Vince Reffet, both started out as skydivers. They loved the air, they loved the rush, but it wasn't enough. As Reffet says, it wasn't the dream.
VINCE REFFET: To fly like a bird.
EDES: Reffet took his first skydive when he was 15 years old. He was terrified.
REFFET: And I did one jump, and since that day, like, started to dream about flying, and that's why I'm here now.
EDES: Once he decided to fly, Reffet had to learn. He says the technology is pretty simple, but you can't just strap on wings. Rossy says you have to figure out how to use your body in sync with a jet pack.
ROSSY: We are part of the thing that flies. If you compare to a bird, the bird needs to train for weeks so that he become strong with his wings, and it's the same for us. You have to train a lot.
EDES: Each pack weighs about 120 pounds. For them to stay up longer than 10 minutes, they'd have to add fuel, which would make them even heavier.
ROSSY: So you cannot give that to my grandmother yet.
EDES: But don't worry. Rossy says that is the next step. He hopes one day there will be a way for you and maybe his grandmother to fly. Alyssa Edes, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
WERTHEIMER: We'll continue our exploration of real-life superpowers throughout the summer. Listen for stories on invisibility, teleportation and mind reading here on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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