Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

thedrive.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 486 posts

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#281

Post by sandworm101 »

sudosysgen wrote: post #225
imglorp wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if it's not Rossi, whose design has been years in the making, I think a copycat is most likely here. Rossi's wing operates at 4000+ feet and 189mph, which is comparable to jets slowing down on long final. Those hobby jet engines are very expensive but off the shelf, and anyone can build a wing in their garage. The FAA would classify it as an aircraft (already has), and would like to talk to this operator. I thin…

a 400N jet engine is now only 6000$. Building a wing with a TWR > 1.0 would only cost about 18 000$ in engines, which is really not that much.

You don't need a TWR anywhere near 1.0. You need that to take off vertically, but if you are willing to jump out of a helicopter you can probably get away with TWRs closer to 0.35 to maintain level flight.

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#283

Post by renewiltord »

achow wrote: post #124
ckocagil wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All sorts of transportation are very fragile. Everyone with a driver's license is trusted with operating tons of steel that can move at enormous speeds. Society's based on some amount of mutual trust. We can't lock everything down and treat every person as a potential criminal. That leads to an inefficient and dystopian country.

Well at the risk of sounding pedantic, things on rails - railways, metro/subway etc. are not in same category.

That chap tried to hit the USNS Mercy Hospital Ship with his cargo locomotive because he thought it was a human experimentation ship https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/04/02/trai...

Would have been top news if it weren't for the fact that America was reeling from an explosion of cases in the COVID19 pandemic.

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#284

Post by pmachinery »

supernova87a wrote: post #199
sharkweek wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I listened to the audio book of “The Only Plane in the Sky” (do recommend), and they played real recordings of ATCs on 9/11 as the planes were hitting buildings. It was surreal listening to them talk about the catastrophe but all while maintaining a total sense of calm.

Speaking of, and coming up on the anniversary in September, here is a description of what a passenger experienced in a plane on that day: "On 9/11, I was listening to Ch. 9. I was on a flight out of ORD to AZ (757) seated in 5F. We had just taken off and where climbing to cruise. A flight out of Rockford, IL was squeezing between us and the UA in front of us. I watched as he lined up to get on the highway westbound.…

Great post. I was confused by "channel 9" since I thought there may be rules or regulations against receiving ATC on a plane, but for anyone else who didn't know exactly what it referred to, it is (was?) an inflight entertainment feature of United Airlines.

https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/united-air...

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#285

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

peter_l_downs wrote: post #208
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://somafm.com/missioncontrol

was going to post this myself if it wasn't in the thread already :) hey paul!

hey peter! i admit to being more of a deep space one fan myself, but with MC, DS1 and Space Station Soma, there's something for nearly everyone.

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#286

Post by TigeriusKirk »

pjc50 wrote: post #179
achow wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well at the risk of sounding pedantic, things on rails - railways, metro/subway etc. are not in same category.

Wasn't there a guy who crashed the train he was driving because he'd been radicalised by Q nonsense?

Back in the 90s a domestic terrorist derailed an Amtrak train in Arizona.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/best-reads/2015/1...

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#287

Post by janlaureys »

tim333 wrote: post #205
sandworm101 wrote: post #6

>> They are also very high-profile in nature and require a mothership to launch from, such as a helicopter, or at least a very high point to leap from. No. Yves "Jetman" Rossi's design can now launch from a standing position on the ground. It is able to launch, hover, transition to forward flight and zoom-climb to several thousand feet. Other than the landing, which is currently still via parachute ... ironman.

Wow - so he can - here's a video https://youtu.be/lK75XLUIKUk?t=8

Whenever I watch this video and the other jetman videos I can't help but try to find anomalies or something wrong in the video to somehow try and prove that it is CGI (which I know it's not).

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#288

Post by sudosysgen »

sandworm101 wrote: post #281
sudosysgen wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a 400N jet engine is now only 6000$. Building a wing with a TWR > 1.0 would only cost about 18 000$ in engines, which is really not that much.

You don't need a TWR anywhere near 1.0. You need that to take off vertically, but if you are willing to jump out of a helicopter you can probably get away with TWRs closer to 0.35 to maintain level flight.

Yes, indeed, but a jetpack specifically refers to a device that is able to hover and take off vertically. But yes, you could make it even cheaper and lighter then, but would need something to help you take off.

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#289

Post by [deleted] »

throwaway3neu94 wrote: post #244
larrywright wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought it was apocryphal as well, but this is the pilot who did it. https://youtu.be/8AyHH9G9et0 Not saying it’s impossible that he made it up or embellished, but it seems likely that it actually happened.

That video is not a one-off. The guy now works as a motivational speaker doing 2-3 of these SR-71 themed speeches every week ( http://galleryonepublishing.com/BlackbirdStores/News.html ). I'm sure he wouldn't let the truth get in the way of a good story.

[deleted]

Re: Airline pilots landing at LAX report “a guy in jetpack” flying alongside them

#290

Post by dkersten »

OJFord wrote: post #175
CPLX wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the procedural problem with it? It's possibly a little too cute or maybe embellished, but there's nothing in it that sounds impossible or beyond plausibility. For reference I have a pilot's license.

The upthread-linked Reddit debunk [0] is A) SR71 would've been on a different frequency to both other planes; B) ATC computers at the time were capped at 990 knots; C) SR71s' speeds were classified, no way the crew would've asked or ATC responded with it. Unfortunately. https://np.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/8x5ndw/til_wh...

> SR71s' speeds were classified

Even after the transatlantic world record "fastest air-breathing manned aircraft" flights in 1976? Especially if they were flying below the record speeds (depends on the exact numbers, going by wikipedia, the record was for approx. 1905 knots, which of course is lower than the figure in the story)?

(But, yeah, I've heard plenty of people, including other SR71 pilots in interviews, question the validity of Shul's stories)

Post reply on HN