Not A Bird, Not A Plane, It's Flight of the Jet Man!: Swiss Adventurer Yves Rossy Successfully Crosses English Channel Using a Single, Jet-Propelled Wing

Not A Bird, Not A Plane, It's Flight of the Jet Man!: Swiss Adventurer Yves Rossy Successfully Crosses English Channel Using a Single, Jet-Propelled Wing

National Geographic Channel's Flight of the Jet Man, Covering Every Aspect of This Historic Moment in Aviation, Premieres Tonight, Friday, Sept. 26, at 8 PM ET/PT

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, at 8:19 a.m. ET, Yves "FusionMan" Rossy successfully completed an amazing challenge and became the first man to fly across the English Channel from Calais, France, to Dover, U.K., using a homemade, single, jet-powered wing. FusionMan covered a distance of 23 miles in 13 minutes.

Tonight, Friday, Sept. 26, at 8 p.m. ET/PT, National Geographic Channel's (NGC) Flight of the Jet Man covers every aspect of this historic moment in aviation, from the intense preparation over the last several months to the moment Yves jumped out of a plane in France to head for England. A major media event this morning all over the world, the NGC special goes behind the scenes with all the details on what made this morning's flight possible.

Swiss adventurer Yves traced the route of French aviator Louis Bleriot, who became the first person to fly across the English Channel in an airplane 99 years ago. Beginning his journey at Calais Airport, Yves Rossy was transported in a plane almost two miles above the ground, at which point he started his four engines. Then, at 8:06 a.m. ET, Yves jumped out of the plane above Calais. Once his wing stabilized, FusionMan began his flight, traveling full throttle, heading for the United Kingdom.

With a light wind at his back, he reached the South Foreland Lighthouse on the iconic White Cliffs of Dover in 13 minutes, covering the 23-mile trip at an average speed of 120 mph. When the White Cliffs of Dover finally appeared, Yves deployed his parachute and landed at 8:19 a.m. ET.

Speaking of his historic feat, the elated Yves said, "So many people were with me on that flight, I want to say thank you ... everything was perfect. I show that it is possible to fly a little bit like a bird."

Cameras in his launch plane and on a helicopter, supplemented by another mounted on the jetpack wing captured every dramatic angle throughout the flight.

This achievement followed many months of preparation and numerous test flights. Only one of his test flights lasted longer than eight minutes. Yves spent much of his time concentrating on wing modifications to increase its performance. He conducted a wind tunnel test and identified ways to add more fuel and develop a better engine ignition system, all of which made crossing the English Channel possible.

The flight across the Channel was broadcast live and exclusively by National Geographic Channel in 164 countries and was also streamed live online at www.natgeotv.com/jetman. In the United States, tonight's Flight of the Jet Man at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NGC features all of the footage from Rossy's flight along with the behind-the-scenes story and preparation.

A crucial step has been achieved today. Yves Rossy will be continuing the adventure. His next challenges? Flying over the Grand Canyon, taking off from the ground, sharing his passion on a patrol flight and especially continuing to develop his wing in order and make it lighter and easier to handle. The ultimate dream? To be able to perform acrobatics and have even more freedom and pleasure during the flight.

Flight of the Jet Man is produced for National Geographic Channel and National Geographic Channels International by Cirrus Communications. Andre Barro from Cirrus and Bernard Vaillot from Galaxie Productions are the executive producers. Kathryn Liptrott is the producer for Cirrus. For NGC-US, the executive producer is Kathleen Cromley and executive vice president of content is Steve Burns. For NGCI, the executive producer is Stephen Hunter for NGCI and the executive vice president of content is Sydney Suissa.

About National Geographic Channel

Based at the National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D.C., the National Geographic Channel (NGC) is a joint venture between National Geographic Ventures (NGV) and Fox Cable Networks (FCN). Since launching in January 2001, NGC initially earned some of the fastest distribution growth in the history of cable and more recently the fastest ratings growth in television. The network celebrated its fifth anniversary January 2006 with the launch of NGC HD which provides the spectacular imagery that National Geographic is known for in stunning high-definition. NGC has carriage with all of the nation's major cable and satellite television providers, making it currently available to nearly 69 million homes. For more information, please visit www.natgeotv.com.

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Source: National Geographic Channel

CONTACT: Russell Howard, +1-202-912-6652, RHoward@natgeochannel.com,
Chris Albert, +1-202-912-6526, CAlbert@natgeochannel.com, National Broadcast:
Dara Klatt, +1-202-912-6720, Dara.Klatt@natgeochannel.com, Photos: Christine
Elasigue, +1-202-912-6708, celasigu@ngs.org, all of National Geographic
Channel; or National & Local Radio: Johanna Ramos Boyer, +1-703-646-5137,
Johanna@jrbcomm.com, or Local Print: Licet Ariza, The Fratelli Group,
+1-202-496-2126, LAriza@fratelli.com, both for National Geographic Channel

Web Site: http://www.natgeotv.com/

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Profile: International Entertainment