“Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s . . . Jetman?”
Yves Rossy, who calls himself “Jetman,” isn’t out to fight crime like Superman, but he does want to fly.
The Swiss adventurer has flown his jet-propelled wingsuit over the Swiss Alps and across the English Channel. Now, he hopes to fly through the Grand Canyon.
Rossy plans to attempt the stunt early Friday, though he has not yet secured approval from the Federal Aviation Administration.
If those approvals come through in time, the 51-year-old daredevil will jump from a helicopter near Eagle Point on the Hualapai Indian Reservation and fly for 15 minutes westward along the rim of the canyon — marking his first U.S. flight in the custom-built suit, The Associated Press said.
Rossy approached the National Park Service with the idea to soar over the Grand Canyon but was turned down.
Rossy typically puts the jetsuit on his back, turns on the engines and jumps out of a plane before the wing stabilizes. Navigating by sight and steering with his body, the flights come to an end when he runs out of fuel and opens a parachute.
