Jet Man

[Mike C]

You have to check this out. What an achievment!

http://www.jet-man.com/actuel_eng.html

[Wesley]

that's incredible!

In case you haven't seen the gliding suits that people are using in Switzerland:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmZyB...ww%2Eidiotworl

[Jeepin]

I have seen these...To strap that much fuel to my body though I would have to think twice. That is after I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane.

[Juke_spin]

Originally Posted by Jeepin

I have seen these...To strap that much fuel to my body though I would have to think twice. That is after I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane.

Yeah, but whata rush!

[Wise Young]

There must be a "flying gene". I must admit that I don't possess it because I have never understood how and why people would choose to jump out of a "perfectly good airplane" for several minutes of adrenaline rush, or jump off a 50 meter platform with just a rubber cord around their ankles. Several friends sky-dive every opportunity they can afford.

History is replete with individuals who have spent their lives developing devices that allow them to fly. In 1956, John DuBarry wrote in an article for Time Magazine that there have been six occasions over 172 years that showed advances in human mastery of flight (Source), suggesting that we will soon have personal flying machines. Several corporations have spent decades developing such devices. For example, SoloTrek makes a machine that allows a person to hover for up to 1.5 hours, reach speeds of 81 miles per hour, and traverse distances up to 115 miles


Although history indicates that the first documented human flight occurred in the 1780's, when two Frenchman lifted off in a balloon (Source), there have been numerous reports of ancient flying machines. For example, apparently in 1898, a device was discovered in an Egyptian tomb that supposedly dates back to 200 BC. Because powered flight was not known at the time, it was classified as a "wooden bird model" and stored in the Cairo Museum until it was rediscovered and found to be an aerodynamically advanced reversedihedral wing that is capable of staying in the air by itself. There are hieroglyphic depictions of potential flying machines (Source). A gold model of a device that looks remarkably like an airplane was discovered in South America, dating back to 500-800 AD.

One of the best known mythological stories is that of Daedelus:
http://www.geocities.com/tasosmit2001/flying.htm

Pasiphae, wife the Cretan king Minos, so the story goes, fell passionately in love with a magnificent bull, pride of the the royal herds, and Daedalus devised a machine to enable her to have her wicked way with it. The monstrous product of this union was the terrifying Minotaur. Minos ordered Daedalus to build the labyrinth, a tortuous open-air maze, to hide it away and, to avoid the shameful secret becoming known, imprisoned Daedalus in it as well, along with his son Icarus who had helped him. But Daedalus collected feathers and, fixing them to his arms with wax, made wings for himself and Icarus, and they flew up and away. Icarus, in his excitement, flew too near the sun; the wax melted and he plunged into the sea to his death; but Daedalus flew on to Sicily, where he found refuge at the court of the king of Syracuse.

Whether these devices actually flew is perhaps not as important as the fact that there were people with the "flying gene" as far back as 2000 years ago, people who not only dreamed of flying but actually attempted to build devices to fly with surprisingly advanced aerodynamic concepts.

Wise.

[cljanney]

That's what I'm taking about!!!

Yes!!!

thanx for the post!