• 'JetMan' makes his flight over the Grand Canyon

    By Rich Shulman

    When we last saw Yves "JetMan" Rossy in PhotoBlog on Friday, he was posing on the rim of the Grand Canyon after deciding to cancel his flight.

    On Saturday, he made good on his plan to fly over the canyon on a jet wing. Full story.

    Breitling

    Flying his jet-propelled wing attached to his back, and steering only by movement of his body, Rossy launched from a helicopter at 8,000 feet into the breathtaking blue of the Grand Canyon sky. Skimming the rockscape at speeds of up to 190 mph, Jetman sustained flight for more than eight minutes, 200 feet above the rim of Grand Canyon West. To end the flawless precision flight, Rossy deployed his parachute and gracefully descended to the canyon floor.

    Alain Ernoult

    Yves "JetMan" Rossy flies over the Grand Canyon, May 7.

     

     

  • Matt York / AP

    Swiss adventurer Yves Rossy pretends to leap into the Grand Canyon from Guano Point on the Hualapai Indian Reservation Friday, May 6. Rossy canceled first US flight in a custom built jet suit due to safety concerns. The Federal Aviation Administration earlier Friday had approved plans for the 51-year-old adventurer to use the Grand Canyon as a backdrop for his first U.S. flight in a jet-propelled wing suit. Rossy calls himself the JetMan.

    'JetMan' gets Grand Canyon OK but then scraps flight

    By Rich Shulman

    On a slow news day, there's nothing we editors look forward to more than a stunt man like "JetMan" planning to fly over the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, good sense got the best of him.

    As AP reported:

    HUALAPAI INDIAN RESERVATION, Ariz. — The "JetMan" has canceled his latest planned flight.

    Swiss daredevil Yves Rossy said he scrapped his plan to fly over the Grand Canyon in a jet-propelled wing suit Friday morning because he didn't have enough time to train.

    "If I do a mistake and half of U.S. television (is here), it's really bad for you, for me, for everybody," he told The Associated Press from Guano Point on the Hualapai Reservation, where spectators had planned to watch him soar through the air.