Your Own Personal Jet Plane

[His Divine Shadow]

So, when will german stormtroopers be landing in washington?

[Invictus ChiKen]

Soooo ummmm if anyone wants to get me a late birthday present....

Seriously that is awesome!

[Kanastrous]

That's cool, but when are we going to get something like this that launches from the ground?

Oh that's easy. Just strap a JATO bottle to the back of it.

Or maybe...

...a couple of JATO bottles...or better yet, RATO bottles...and I have an old ALICE pack frame in the garage...

(checks status of life insurance policy and dusts off drawing table)

[Sidewinder]

What about the glider device, the "Switchblade" type thing seen in Die Another Day? Does that seem remotely practical?

The Switchblade might have a purpose, if a limited one, for inserting special forces operators or resupplying them. Comments from people with more knowledge of special operations?

[Shinova]

It's like Rocketeer, but real.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Ironman has convinced me that if air travel does not come with a stripper pole, it is not worth it.

Oh, he had one in the Mk III, did he?

[The Duchess of Zeon]

That's cool, but when are we going to get something like this that launches from the ground?

Oh that's easy. Just strap a JATO bottle to the back of it. :)

Or maybe...

...a couple of JATO bottles...or better yet, RATO bottles...and I have an old ALICE pack frame in the garage...

(checks status of life insurance policy and dusts off drawing table)

Just get a fire-retardant entry-suit, which can handle sustained duration radiant heat of up to 1,093 C. I suspect his is already made out of flame-retardant materials, as jet exhaust can be rather hot, nevermind rocket fuel.

[Broomstick]

I want one.

And of all the people expressing that desire here you know I’m probably the one closet to being able to fly it.

Rossy, 48, made his first public flight with his self-made flying contraption in front of the world press Wednesday, after five years of training and many more years of dreaming.

Note the frequent mention of time and expense in this story – flying is NEVER cheap.

To do this, he will have to fit his wings with bigger, more powerful jets to allow for greater maneuvering. The German-built model aircraft engines he currently uses already provide 200 pounds of thrust — enough to allow Rossy and his 120-pound flying suit to climb through the air.

Oh, RC jet engines – we have guys flying those around here.

Seems like a really awesome alternative to parachutes for inserting special forces.

For those of you thinking “military applications” – guys, these are real jet engines, even if they are real small jet engines. They are noisy as fuck and their exhaust is every bit as hot as what comes out the ass end of a Boeing or Airbus. Parachutes are relatively silent and much less likely to burn the pilot or otherwise cause problems with combustion. HALO jumps may not be as sexy but from a stealth viewpoint they are a lot more reasonable.

Wicked’s points about gear loads and drag/”speed brake” effects should be carefully noted.

A trained skydiver (and the guys doing HALO are definitely trained) can achieve speeds close to 300 mph even without power other than gravity (obviously, they slow down considerably prior to landing). I don't see where this rig would add much to their operational capability.

"Physically, it's absolutely no stress," Rossy said. "It's like being on a motorbike."

But on this ride, even the slightest movement can cause problems. Rossy said he has to focus hard on relaxing in the air, because "if you put tension on your body, you start to swing around."

This is an issue with weight-shift steering, and the smaller the aircraft the more of an issue it is. I’ve flown aircraft small enough for me steer by shifting my weight and while it’s an easy technique to learn it’s quite difficult to master. For skydivers, learning to control one’s body while in flight/falling is a major skill set. One of the things that makes it hard is learning NOT to do something – not to tense up, not to lean, not to move, etc. Invariably the beginner over-controls. The inputs required to steer in the air are usually surprisingly minimal. This is why I laugh whenever some troglodyte makes a comment about doubting a woman is “strong enough” to fly – anyone who says that is not an aviator. Flying is almost entirely about precise control, not brute strength. (There are a very, very few exceptions)

Should things go wrong — and Rossy says they have more times than not — there's always a yellow handle to jettison the wings and unfold the parachute.

"I've had many 'whoops' moments," he said. "My safety is altitude."

This is the difference between the comic books and reality – parachutes are a very, very good idea and you don’t learn to fly in your garage full of expensive cars.

But, he believes similar jet-powered wings will one day be more widely available to experienced parachutists ready for the ultimate flying experience.

Note – the guy who created this is indicating that a skydiving background is very useful for this sort of thing. Anyone with genuine ambitions about personal jet-wings please take note.

That is, if they don't mind missing out on the breathtaking panorama above the Swiss Alps.

"I am so concentrated, I don't really enjoy the view," Rossy said.

And this is also very true – you have to concentrate on flying, not the scenery. I learned this pretty early on in my flying. When I want to play “tourist” I have someone else fly the plane. It’s why you don’t see pictures from my solo flights – I’m either flying the plane or “flying” the camera, not both. It’s not that it would be impossible to do both, but I feel safer without the extra division of attention.

Dipping back into the world of fiction and recent movies – although in a sense Iron Man is “just” Tony Stark in flying armor, it’s unreasonable to assume just anyone could put on the suit and use it equally well. It’s not that what he does is so difficult on a human level, it’s that he’s the guy who has the experience and practice. Anyone else is at a disadvantage because they lack his experience.

I just hope they're commercially available before my reflexes are too far gone, to manage one.

Build your own. Buy some RC jet engines and go to it. You can get JetA from most small airports in the US (we have 5,000+ airfields here), bring an approved container for the fuel. I suggest using the engines outdoors, clear all flammable items from exhaust area, and don’t forget to stock some fire extinguishers.

You will have a problem in that, while the weight falls under Part 103 Ultralights the level flight speed does not, nor would it fall under the Sport Pilot regs. Check with the local FSDO as to what you will need. As the current rules stand it looks like you’d need a private pilot license with both multi-engine and high performance logbook endorsements. This is not impossible to achieve, but given that this bears very little relation to the usual Part 91 sort of flying I think you could make a valid argument to the FSDO that an exception should be made and perhaps you can get an exemption or waiver. Otherwise, budget at least $15k and at least 6 months to get the necessary license/sign-offs. You may also need to license the wing/engine combo under the experimental regs, and the FAA will have something to say about where you can test-fly it (NOT over cities or densely inhabited areas). Licensing experimentals/homebuilts, if I recall (it’s been some years since I was involved in that) is usually a couple hundred to a couple thousand, there are several variables involved.

You may wish to start with RC models and scale up from there. Certainly, crashing RC models is less painful to you, personally, that crashing a rig with you aboard. There is also a nice subset of the AMA (the US RC flying group) involved in jet-propulsion already, I’m sure they’d be happy to help you/give advice (including, in some instances, “don’t be so fucking stupid!”)

That's cool, but when are we going to get something like this that launches from the ground?

There are some serious issues with getting up to flight speed using your feet as landing gear, not to mention landing. The early ultralights used organic landing gear but almost none do so now – too many broken legs and ankles. The human leg/foot can’t really handle more than 15-20 mph speeds, but the stall speed on that thing has got to be a LOT higher. You’d need some sort of landing gear that retracts, greatly complicating the thing and adding weight; or some sort of detectable launching gizmo; or else a wing that is MUCH greater in area to allow a slow speed launch that then folds to a smaller configuration – again, more complication and weight.

Keep in mind that this rig adds 120 lbs of mass to you – if you hit something you’ll not only hit faster than with your bare self, you’ll hit harder. Essentially, you’ve add the mass of a small adult to your situation. Risks go up with tandem parachuting and with heavier hang-gliders for similar reasons. It’s not that these risks are unmanageable – clearly they are, as most skydivers and hang-gliders land safely most of the time – just that you have to consider these issues. With this rig, the higher speed is more of a problem than the additional weight/mass.

Launching from an aircraft/parachute landing is what we’re going to have for the foreseeable future with this sort of flight.

Just get a fire-retardant entry-suit, which can handle sustained duration radiant heat of up to 1,093 C. I suspect his is already made out of flame-retardant materials, as jet exhaust can be rather hot, nevermind rocket fuel.

The fire-retardant suit may not be necessary. RC model jets are certainly NOT fireproof – they’re made of stuff like wood, styrofoam, styrene, other plastics, sometimes composites...all very flammable. The key is to make sure there is some sort of non-flammable insulation between the hot parts of the engine and what it mounts to in the fuselage, and also (VERY important) make sure nothing flammable is in the way of the exhaust. The exhaust as it emerges from the engine is very “focused” and direct – at arm’s length from an RC jet engines you’re aware of something Very Hot nearby but it doesn’t burn you so long as you stay out of its direct path. (jet RC’ers frequently set up safety cones to mark out the danger zone – it’s long but narrow). The jet-power ultralight that was flown as Oshkosh in the mid-1990’s had the engine in close proximity to the pilot, who wore only ordinary clothes (shorts and t-shirt, if I recall – it was the height of summer, after all) but, because he was seated in front of the engine, suffered no harm from it. The builder did mention that engine placement was important as the exhaust would instantly melt any struts it hit and incinerate wing fabric – he solved the problem by using a design that didn’t have a tail and a pusher powerplant configuration, so there was no structure behind the engine. He still had to be careful about what was behind him on start up and other pilots were advised not to follow too closely.

Bottom line – the heat is not much of a problem as long as you stay in front of the jet engine and aim the exhaust carefully.