Getting high with Rossy and the jets

Is it a bird? Is it another plane? No, its Mr Yves Rossy - otherwise known as Jetman!

The Swiss daredevil added another feather to his cap recently by flying in formation with the Patrouille Acrobatique de France, the precision aerobatic demonstration team of the French Air Force.

Strapped to his back was a winged jetpack that he designed himself, and which allows him to zoom through the air at nearly 300kmh.

For the stunt, Mr Rossy was first dropped from a helicopter, after which he started his kerosene-powered engines. He then controlled his flight with just his body movements and a throttle in one hand.

"You are the fuselage, you are the cockpit," the former fighter pilot told the audience at a conference by WIRED2016 magazine this month.

He has also flown across the English Channel, around Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro and in choreographed formation alongside an Emirates A-380 plane.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on November 25, 2016, with the headline Getting high with Rossy and the jets. Subscribe