Dover, England (GenevaLunch) - Swiss pilot Yves Rossy, 49, who lives in canton Vaud just outside Geneva, has just become the first human to cross the Channel between France and England by jet propulsion: the actual flight time with an eight-foot band of carbon fiber strapped and four jets strapped to his back took about 10 minutes and he needed three more with a parachute to land in a field near Dover.

He was going over 200kph. Rossy has done similar flights, but over the Alps in Switzerland, rather than over open water and a busy shipping lane. He was taken aloft by a small plane from Calais, then dropped out of the plane when it reached 2,500 metres.

• Rossy’s web site
• Story on TSR, with video to be added
• Background, The Daily Mail, “The Human Buzz Lightyear,” 5 September 2008 and Fusion Man video, The Times, background story

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