WHO IS JET MAN?

A former Air Force pilot, Yves Rossy has spent much of his career flying thousands of people around the planet as a captain for SWISS. But when Rossy is not flying planes, he is jumping out of them. Freestyle, skysurf, freely – you name it, he has done it. But no matter how daring, these adventure sports never fulfilled his childhood dream: to soar like a bird. Not with a glider, but with a propelled fixed wing. Appearing live on National Geographic Channel in Jet Man Live, Rossy will attempt to become the first person to cross the English Channel using a single, jet-propelled wing.

Rossy devotes all of his spare time to flying in the purest sense, carrying out more and more tests using equipment developed on a trial and error basis: an inflatable wing, which carried him over the 12 kilometres separating the Swiss and French banks of Lake Geneva, a paraglider and a surf board that sent him skimming through Geneva’s water fountain before spectacularly grabbing the handle of a water skier, and a skydiving adventure on a disc “above” the Matterhorn. Today, Rossy has become FusionMan, the first man in the world to attach jet engines to a single wing and fly.

Growing up with his head in the clouds and his feet on the ground, Rossy pursued a technical apprenticeship and then graduated in engineering. As a fighter pilot, discovering the Mirage III supersonic fighter plane was certainly one of the high points of Rossy’s career. He flew the aircraft for 15 years, and also piloted historic aircraft such as the Hunter and the Venom.

An accomplished sportsman, his past and present hobbies include surfing, water-skiing, wakeboarding, skysurfing, parachuting, aerobatics, motorbike riding, rafting and hang-gliding, to name but a few. Flying under a jet wing is the culmination of a 30-year career interspersed with exploits and firsts.

Yves Rossy was born on 27, August 1959, in Neuchatel, Switzerland. He speaks English, French and German fluently.