Fly with the Jetman | Yves Rossy

7,291,056 views ใƒป 2011-11-15

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00:16
(Music)
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[music by Moby]
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[Grand Canyon]
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Narrator: Many of the tests are conducted
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while Yves is strapped onto the wing,
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because Yves' body is an integral part of the aircraft.
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[Wind tunnel tests]
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Narrator: The wing has no steering controls, no flaps, no rudder.
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Yves uses his body to steer the wing.
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Stefan Von Bergen: Well, he turns
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by just putting his head on one or the other side.
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And sometimes he assists that with his hands,
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sometimes even with the leg.
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He's acting as a human fuselage, so to say.
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And that's quite unique.
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Narrator: When he arches his back, he gains altitude.
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When he pushes his shoulders forward, he goes into a dive.
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[Swiss Alps]
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[Strait of Gibraltar crossing]
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[English Channel crossing]
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Commentator One: There he goes.
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There is Yves Rossy.
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And I think the wing is open.
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So our first critical moment, it's open.
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He is down. Is he flying?
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Commentator Two: It looks like he's stabilized.
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He's starting to make his climb.
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Commentator One: There's that 90 degree turn.
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He's out over the channel.
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There is Yves Rossy.
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There is no turning back now.
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He is over the English Channel and under way.
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Ladies and gentlemen,
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a historic flight has begun.
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[Images: National Geographic]
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Commentator Two: And as he approaches the ground,
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he's going to pull down on those toggles to flare,
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slow himself down just a little bit,
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and then come in for a nice landing.
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Commentator One: There he is.
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Yves Rossy has landed in England.
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Bruno Giussani: And now he's in Edinburgh. Yves Rossy!
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(Applause)
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(Applause ends)
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And his equipment as well.
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Yves, welcome. It is quite amazing.
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Those sequences were shot over the last three years
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in various moments of your activities.
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And there were many, many others.
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So it's possible to fly almost like a bird.
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What is it like to be up there?
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Yves Rossy: It's fun. It's fun.
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(Laughter)
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I don't have feathers.
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But I feel like a bird sometimes.
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It's really an unreal feeling,
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because normally you have a big thing,
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a plane, around you.
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And when I strap just this little harness,
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this little wing,
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I really have the feeling of being a bird.
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BG: How did you start to become Jetman?
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YR: It was about 20 years ago,
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when I discovered free falling.
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When you go out of an airplane, you are almost naked.
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You take a position like that.
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And especially when you take a tracking position,
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you have the feeling that you are flying.
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And that's the nearest thing to the dream.
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You have no machine around you.
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You are just in the element.
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It's very short and only in one direction.
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(Laughter)
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So the idea was, okay,
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keep that feeling of freedom,
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but change the vector and increase the time.
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BG: So I'm kind of curious, what's your top speed?
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YR: It's about 300 km per hour before looping.
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That means about 190 miles per hour.
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BG: What's the weight of the equipment you're carrying?
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YR: When I exit full of kerosene,
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I'm about 55 kilos.
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I have 55 kilos on my back.
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BG: And you're not piloting?
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There is no handle, no steering, nothing?
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It is purely your body,
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and the wings become part of the body and vice versa?
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YR: That's really the goal,
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because if you put in steering,
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then you reinvent the airplane.
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And I wanted to keep this freedom of movement.
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And it's really like the kid playing the airplane.
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I want to go down like that.
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And up I climb, I turn.
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It's really pure flying.
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It's not steering, it's flight.
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BG: What kind of training do you do, you personally, for that?
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YR: Actually, I try to stay just fit.
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I don't do special physical training.
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I just try to keep my mobility through new activities.
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For example, last winter I began with kite surfing.
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So, new things.
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So you have to adapt.
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I'm quite an experienced manager of systems as a pilot,
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but this is, really --
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You need fluidity,
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you need to be agile
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and also to adapt really fast.
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BG: Somebody in the audience asked me,
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"How does he breathe up there?"
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Because you're going fast and you're up at 3,000 meters or so.
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YR: Okay, up to 3,000 meters,
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it's not such a big problem with oxygen.
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But for example, bikers,
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they have the same speed.
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Just with the helmet, integral helmet,
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it's really no problem to breathe.
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BG: Describe for me the equipment, since you have it here.
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So Breitling's four engines.
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YR: Yeah, two-meter span.
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Ultra-stable profile.
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Four little engines,
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22 kilos thrust each,
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turbines, working with kerosene.
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Harness, parachute.
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My only instruments are an altimeter and time.
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I know I have about eight minutes fuel.
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So I just check before it's finished.
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(Laughter)
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And yeah, that's all.
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Two parachutes.
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That means, if I have a problem with the first one I pull,
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I still have the possibility to open the second one.
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And this is my life.
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That's the real important thing about safety.
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I did use that during these last 15 years
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about 20 times.
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Never with that type of wing, but at the beginning.
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I can release my wing
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when I am in a spin or unstable.
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BG: We saw the 2009 crossing of the Gibraltar Strait
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where you lost control
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and then you dived down into the clouds
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and in the ocean.
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So that was one of those cases where you let the wings go, right?
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YR: Yeah. I did try in the clouds,
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but you lose orientation completely.
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So I did try to take, again,
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a climb altitude.
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I thought, okay, I will go out.
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But most probably, I did something like that.
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(Laughter)
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BG: Something that is not very safe, the image.
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YR: You feel great, but --
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(Laughter)
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But you have not the right altitude.
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So the next thing I saw was just blue.
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It was the sea.
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I have also an audible altimeter.
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So I was at my minimum altitude
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in that vector -- fast --
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so I pulled that.
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And then I did open my chute.
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BG: So the wings have their own parachute, and you have your two parachutes.
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YR: Exactly. There is a rescue parachute for the wing
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for two reasons:
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so I can repair it afterward
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and especially so nobody takes that, just on his head.
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BG: I see. Maybe come back here.
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This is risky stuff indeed.
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People have died trying to do this kind of thing.
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And you don't look like a crazy guy; you're a Swiss airline pilot,
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so you're rather a checklist kind of guy.
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I assume you have standards.
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YR: Yeah. I have no checklist for that.
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(Laughter)
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BG: Let's not tell your employer.
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(Laughter)
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YR: No, that's really two worlds.
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Civil aviation is something that we know very well.
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We have a hundred years of experience.
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And you can adapt really precisely.
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With that, I have to adapt to something new.
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That means improvise.
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So it's really a play between these two approaches.
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Something that I know very well, these principles.
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For example, we have two engines on an Airbus;
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with only one engine, you can fly it.
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So plan B, always a plan B.
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In a fighter, you have an ejection seat.
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That's my ejection seat.
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So I have the approach of a professional pilot
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with the respect of a pioneer
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in front of Mother Nature.
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BG: It's well said.
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What happens if one of the engines stops?
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YR: I do a roll.
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And then I stabilize,
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and according to my altitude, I continue on two or three engines.
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It's sometimes possible.
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It's quite complicated to explain,
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but according to which regime I was,
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I can continue on two
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and try to get a nice place to land, and then I open my parachute.
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BG: So the beginning of the flight
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is actually you jump off a plane or a helicopter,
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and you go on a dive and accelerate the engines,
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and then you basically take off mid-air somewhere.
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And then the landing, as we have seen,
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arriving on this side of the Channel,
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is through a parachute.
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So just as a curiosity,
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where did you land when you flew over the Grand Canyon?
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Did you land on the rim, down at the bottom?
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YR: It was down on the bottom.
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And I came back afterward on the sled of the helicopter back.
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But it was too stony and full of cactus on top.
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(Laughter)
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BG: That's exactly why I asked the question.
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YR: And also, the currents are quite funny there.
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There is big thermal activity,
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big difference in altitude also.
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So it was much safer for me to land at the bottom.
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BG: I think that right now, many people are asking,
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"When are you developing a double-seater
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so they can fly with you?"
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YR: I have a standard answer.
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Have you ever seen tandem birds?
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(Laughter)
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BG: Perfect answer.
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(Applause)
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(Applause ends)
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BG: Yves, one last question.
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What's next for you? What's next for Jetman?
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YR: First, to instruct a younger guy.
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I want to share it, to do formation flights.
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And I plan to start from a cliff,
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like catapulted from a cliff.
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BG: So instead of jumping off a plane, yes?
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YR: Yes, with the final goal to take off, but with initial speed.
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Really, I go step by step.
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It seems a little bit crazy, but it's not.
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It's possible to start already now, it's just too dangerous.
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(Laughter)
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Thanks to the increasing technology, better technology,
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it will be safe.
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And I hope it will be for everybody.
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BG: Yves, thank you very much. Yves Rossy.
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(Applause)
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