Swiss daredevil Yves Rossy has postponed his attempt to make history by flying across the English Channel with a jet-propelled wing strapped to his back.
The flight, which was set for a Web broadcast this morning followed by a complete account of the stunt tonight on the National Geographic Channel, was delayed after clouds rolled in over the white cliffs of Dover and hampered visibility.
Rossy said the flight would be rescheduled for Friday, when the weather is expected to improve.
“It’s not so safe to fly across water if you can’t see,” he told National Geographic Channel in a live television interview. “I don’t have any instruments and I need to be able to see the landing site.”
Rossy’s 121-lb. wing is powered by four miniature, kerosene-powered jet engines that should boost the adventurer’s speed to over 120 mph.
For the attempt, Rossy will leap from an airplane nearly two miles over the French port city of Calais. He will start the engines on the contraption once he clears the aircraft.
If all goes as planned, he hopes to rocket across the 23-mile channel in about 15 minutes and land somewhere near Dover, in England.
Rossy, 50, is a former Swiss Air Force pilot who spent much of his career as a commercial pilot. He is also an internationally known skysurfer.
Over the years, he has flown a series of increasingly strange one-man aircraft including an inflatable wing (for 7.4 miles across Lake Geneva) and a combination paraglider and surfboard.
Another one of Rossy’s recent stunts required him to surf through the sky on a disc above the summit of the Matterhorn.