DOES ELTON JOHN KNOW ABOUT THIS?
| Rocketman takes to the skies |
A Swiss pilot has turned himself into a 'rocketman' by strapping a pair of wings and two jet engines to his back.
Yves Rossy, 45, a former airforce fighter pilot, gave his carbon wings their first test flight in Spain.
He said: "It is absolutely fantastic. Total freedom in three dimensions, so much speed and power, it was better than being a bird.
"I have to jump from a moving plane as I can't really take off from an airfield like a real plane, I couldn't run that fast", he said laughing, and added: "I don't have an undercarriage either."
To land he has to cut the engines and coast to the ground, using a conventional parachute at the last minute.
Mr Rossy spent five years developing his three metre carbon fibre wings for his flying man project, then added two kerosene-powered jet engines to his original wing design.
Handles are fixed onto the wings so that Yves can electronically manipulate the wingtips, giving him the freedom to decide when he wanted to either glide or dive.
He said: "After I jumped my wings opened like a bird taking wing, I then glided down to 2500m, and ignited the kerosene engines.
"There was a short period, 30 seconds, while I waited for them to stabilize and then I began to open the throttle.
"I soon realised I was no longer losing height, and achieved horizontal flight for more than four minutes at 100 knots (115mph)."
AND THEY SAID IT WOULDN'T LAST
A Norfolk man is to finally marry a woman whose name he had tattooed on his arm 32 years ago.
Andy Cheeseman's decision to proclaim his love for Annette Law as a 17-year-old appeared somewhat rash when they split up before she had even seen it.
After more than two decades and two broken marriages the couple got back together again after a chance reunion through Friends Reunited and Annette was finally able to see the tattoo for the first time.
Andy, 49, of Gorleston, said:"It's very emotional."
| Serbia erects Sam Fox statue |
A life-size marble statue of former page three girl Samantha Fox is to be erected in Serbia after she agreed to sing at a pop festival.
Locals in Cacak raised the money to show the 1980s model turned pop star how delighted they were she is to visit.
Fan Obrad Banovic said: "We love her. She is an authentic sex symbol of 1980s so why shouldn't we have a monument to her. Other towns have their heroes in parks so why can't we?
"We are also aware that her most famous attributes may require special treatment so we are planning on using the best quality marble only."
The idea for the statue came after Samantha agreed to take part at a local music festival in Cacak scheduled for April.
It also comes after the northern Serbian village of Zitiste decided to put up a statue of Hollywood film character Rocky.
