EAA Sport Aviation - March 2011

He then moved to the civil sector but kept ties with the military as a reserve officer. His latest position was as captain flying Airbuses for Swiss International Air Lines. That was before he took a sabbatical in 2008 to work full-time on his wing.

The Jetman concept traces its roots to Yves’ experience in sky diving. In the early 1990s, he envisioned that a sky diver in free fall could maneuver better in a standing position. “This is more natural,” Yves said.

He became one of the “skysurfing” pio-
neers, though the early trials were not really
satisfactory. “On something that is adapted
from a surfboard, horizontal movement is
hardly faster than what you can achieve when
you lie face down,” he said. So Yves started
experimenting with surfing on an aerody-
namically shaped board, and the results were
better, yielding a 2. 5 lift-to-drag ratio. For
safety when testing his prototypes, Yves fas-
tened his feet to the board with bindings that
he could release. He was on his way.

YVES’ FIRST WINGS

So he designed a rigid wing glider, constructed of carbon fiber, which he could strap to his back with a harness and could release in flight. He was undaunted by history. “Those who tried this sort of wing, as early as the 1950s, killed themselves because they could not release the wing,” he asserted. The first wing Yves attached to his back

In his quest to fly with total freedom using only his body to steer, Yves’ flying has evolved from sky diving to sky surfing. He tried sky diving with wingsuits before strapping a wing to his back that would allow him to glide. With the addition of model jet engines, Jetman was born.