If you thought that hang-gliding or skydiving off a plane was tough, you haven't seen Swiss pilot Yves Rossy propel himself through the sky with a rigid wing boosted up with jet engines. A noted extreme sportsman in Europe due to his innovative air-surfing records and stunts, the former military pilot has recently become a YouTube sensation due to the innovation of his jet-wing applications.

The jet-engine-powered wing set cannot push the pilot up into the sky –- he has to rely on a Pilatus Porter plane to set him at a suitable altitude of about 4000m (over 13,000 ft.). The foldable carbon graphite wing has 4 jet engines, includes fuel, backup batteries, and of course some oil in the kerosene for lubricating the engine, so it's a full blown DIY machine up there. Note: The video below is mostly in French and German, but you can check out the flying starting at the 3:00 minute mark.

When Mr. Rossy throws himself off the plane, he glides to 2500m (8,208 ft.) above the earth, starts the ignition of the engines, and when they stabilize within 30 seconds, he truly starts flying horizontally for more than 4 minutes at a speed of 100 knots (or 115 MPH). His longest flight has been about 6 minutes, and according to him, he'll try to expand upon that mark by the end of the year.

Even though this lustily fills our hearts with gadget envy, we wouldn't try it even if you paid us. In fact, it seems that Mr. Rossy has doubts about the safety of the wing as well:

The wings don't open symmetrically, so I'm always a little tense that that will work well, sometimes that creates a little half turn like that, but I've exited well, and clunk!

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/01/swiss-pilot-use.html