Fusion Man (copyright www.jet-man.com)

It’s a bird… It’s a plane… No, it’s “Fusion Man”! Who??! No, it’s not another superhero. It’s just Yves Rossy, a.k.a. “Fusion Man”, who made history by becoming the first man to fly across the English Channel from Calais, France to Dover, UK, using a homemade, jet-powered wing on Thursday 26th September 2008.

What’s so special about that? Well, he wasn’t inside a plane or hanging from a glider. Using a set of jet-powered carbon wings strapped to his back, Yves jumped out of a plane at an altitude of 2,500m. After gliding for a while, he opened the folded wings and flew like Superman over the 35-kilometer France-to-England journey in 13 minutes.

Flying at speeds of over 200 kilometers per hour, Yves steered by just moving his head and back. After a successful crossing, Rossy opened his parachute and floated down to a green field not far from the White Cliffs of Dover.

That’s a real breakthrough in terms of human flight. Imagine being free from the confines of an aircraft and flying freely with just a jet-powered backpack. The challenge now would be to make the jets more powerful and longer-lasting yet at the same time reducing the size and weight of the backpack. They might have to put in some stabilizer jets like the ones on Iron Man’s armor so the pilot has more control over his flight and balance.

If this technology goes mainstream, traffic jams will be a thing of the past. We will be flying everywhere. However, many questions come to mind. If we buy a car-load of groceries from the supermarket, where will we put it without our cars? With people flying around, there will definitely be some air accidents and we will need a new set of air-traffic regulations.

What do you think? Can this technology be really practical?