16
$\begingroup$

According to the Times of India:

Yves Rossy and Vincent Reffet - have achieved the rare feat of flying with the innovative Jetman wings, on either side of an Emirates A380 aircraft, the world's largest passenger aircraft, 4000 feet above sea level.

My Questions are:

  1. Is flying near other aircraft is legal?
  2. How they avoid getting into jet turbulence and other forces?
  3. Is there Jetman suit available to catch up to the jet engined planes?

Jet Man Flying above an A380

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
13
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Here's a related question about formation flying of non-military planes I asked a while ago $\endgroup$
    – James Thorpe
    Commented Nov 6, 2015 at 10:16
  • 7
    $\begingroup$ Given that this stunt was performed far from the jurisdiction of the US Federal Aviation Administration, I'm not sure why it's tagged "faa-regulations". Are you asking what regulations would cover a similar stunt in US airspace or is the question mis-tagged? $\endgroup$
    – David Richerby
    Commented Nov 6, 2015 at 10:47
  • 12
    $\begingroup$ @Lucky No, of course not. That's exactly what "out of US jurisdiciton" means! $\endgroup$
    – David Richerby
    Commented Nov 6, 2015 at 11:43
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ At this low speed, the angle of attack should be high, and air turbulent. I doubt they are close to the plane, The camera angles and lens may provide a false feeling of proximity. Even the two men may not be close to each other to prevent them for being injured by their jet. I would be curious of further details. $\endgroup$
    – mins
    Commented Nov 6, 2015 at 13:23
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ @Lucky The FAA is the US agency responsible for aviation regulations in the U.S. Other countries have their own similar agencies with their own sets of regulations and jurisdictions. These types of agencies are usually called "civil aviation authorities" or CAAs. $\endgroup$
    – reirab
    Commented Nov 6, 2015 at 21:01

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
25
$\begingroup$

  1. Yes. This is part of a series of promotional stunts, "adverts", Emirates are undertaking. Aircraft can fly in formation, all other rules taken into account, if the captains agree.

  2. By flying above the aircraft. As the article states, it was meticulously planned for safety (after all, an accident would be disatrous PR), and the Jetman flyers would know exactly where not to go.

  3. Yes. The video shows that! The aircraft will likely be flying at slow speed. As you can see, the flaps are extended. I'm guessing about 160 kts. I would also imagine the flyers will have dived down from above to pick up speed.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
1
  • 6
    $\begingroup$ They jumped out of a helicopter which, by the looks of the video, was indeed above the flight path of the 380. $\endgroup$
    – Jamiec ♦
    Commented Nov 6, 2015 at 9:27
6
$\begingroup$

To answer the third questions about how they caught up with the A380:

The Jetmen currently fly with a 140 kg high-tech carbon-fiber wing which is fitted with 4 Jetcat P400 engines. The engines are powered by a mix of kerosene and turbine oil capable of pushing a combined thrust of 160kg. This allows us to cover a distance of approximately 40km with speeds of up to 140 – 170 knots.
Source: Jetman Facebook page and Jetman Dubai Facebook page

The A380 approach category is cat (c) the approach speed with flaps should be anything from 121 to 141 knots.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
4
  • 8
    $\begingroup$ Your second paragraph sounds like a quote from a website or document. If so, please provide a source link. $\endgroup$
    – FreeMan
    Commented Nov 6, 2015 at 16:15
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Its from there facebook page ( jetman Dubai ) $\endgroup$
    – Hmb
    Commented Nov 6, 2015 at 18:27
  • 5
    $\begingroup$ A reference is nice, but it's not a link... ;) $\endgroup$
    – FreeMan
    Commented Nov 6, 2015 at 18:29
  • $\begingroup$ @FreeMan - I found these 2 Facebook pages: Jetman Dubai - Facebook, and Jetman - Facebook, but with a quick look, I couldn't find that text. $\endgroup$
    – Kevin Fegan
    Commented Nov 7, 2015 at 16:55
-1
$\begingroup$

Based on measurements from https://www.airbus.com/sites/g/files/jlcbta136/files/2021-12/EN-Airbus-A380-Facts-and-Figures-December-2021_0.pdf

The A380's wing span is 79.8 metres tip to tip, and the widest part of the fuselage is about 7 metres so each wing is about 36.4 metres long.

Based on page 4 of https://www.sjsu.edu/ae/docs/project-thesis/Andres.Herrera%20S15.pdf we find a total wingspan of 2.4 metres for the Jetman.

enter image description here

enter image description here

Time to get fuzzy.... The tips of the jet pack don't line up with the A380's wing, so to approximate, I see four of the larger right hand gap and 3 of the smaller left hand gap equalling the wing:

enter image description here

9/7ths of 2.4 metres is about 3.1 metres. Very approximate but let's see what happens:

Simple division shows that 3.1/36.4 is around 0.85 or 8.5%

Jetman is about 8.5% of the way from the camera to the wing

This triangle can't be solved by Trigonometry because we don't have any angles and only one side, along with the length of a chord/cut and a ratio apart. Sketching all that results in:

enter image description here

Observations: Jetman's really small, but that's a very very big aircraft.

Additionally there's a vertical component we haven't accounted for, but the image shows Jetman is well above the vertical stabiliser, perhaps 4x the tails's 15 metre height. As such it should be well out of the turbulence assuming the plane is straight and level, and Jetman is sliding sideways relative.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .