Yves Rossy, aka Jetman, took to the skies at the National Championship Air Races and Air Show, which took place this past weekend in Reno, Nevada. This, the second show during Jetman’s U.S. visit after AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, presented some new challenges for the man who straps a jet-powered carbon-Kevlar wing to his body, which essentially functions as a fuselage and multi-directional control surface.
The biggest challenge, Rossy said, was the altitude. The field elevation at Reno/Stead Airport is more than 5,000 feet, which meant Jetman jumped out of his helicopter into very thin air at 11,000 feet. “The wing doesn’t fly quite so smoothly [at that altitude],” Rossy said. “We had to recalibrate the engines to enable them to start with less oxygen present.”
