What ever happened to Buzz Lightyear?

[mcrocker 0]

A couple years back I went to Eloy for Airspeed camp. There was a guy who had a 8' red wing with 2 80lb thrust jet engines attached jumping out of the skyvan. I don't think he had the jets installed just the pods at the time. A motorocycle helmet with heads up display and throttle, arm switches to control the jets. Everyon called him Buzz Lightyear. Does anyone know what happened to him and his wing? Did it eventually become the Red Bull wing that Felix flew?

His plan was to light the engines in the plane !!! jump out and be able to fly around for about 30 minutes before running out of fuel. I remember seeing a video of his main deployment. The pilot chute (spring loaded) just bounced off his back for a while before getting clear air. I can imagine a 8' wing span makes a huge burble

[quade 4]

Ya know, when I was a video tape editor, producers would come to me and talk about shots they swore they had in the can, yet could never find. Or cutting news they'd ask me to lay in a shot of something that couldn't possibly have happened yet. I called this "WishCam" footage and sometimes "FutureCam" footage depending on the situation.

Is it conceivable that you've seen a lot of different things over the course of time and sort of invented this story in your head?

Certainly if anything such as this currently existed we'd all know about it. I gotta tell you, 8-foot hard wings aren't going to fit in a lot of aircraft.

I'm not saying that it didn't happen, but that it's possible you simply saw a SkyRay without all the other stuff you attribute to it.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[mcrocker 0]

100% certain. I saw it in person. I was sitting next to him on many rides to altitude. He was in the front of the skyvan facing back sitting in the middle. The wings fit in the skyvan. He had the pods on the wings and some hard plastic fins for his boots. I went a couple days early to Eloy and made a bunch of fun jumps. I think Omar shot the video for him but it could have been Steve.

100% guarantee that there was a guy (blond hair, coming from California) jumping a Red, fiberglass hard wing with boot fins and jet engines from the back of a SkyVan in Eloy. He had a digital alti installed upside down in his Shoe motorcycle helmet and a mirror for a heads up display. On his left forearm a bunch of switches to control the engines. In one of his hands he had a trigger for a throttle.

I never saw him jump with any fuel or with the engines installed running but he did have the pods hanging under the wings.

I did my airspeed skills camp in November of 2000. So it was a week before/during that camp.

[quade 4]

Ok, that just sounds wierd.

Is it -possible- that it was actually a "costume" jump in prep for a movie stunt and/or the guys were just pulling your leg about actual jet engines?

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[mcrocker 0]

Anything is possible. If that was the case then I'm a big schmuck because everyone was in on the joke. It sure as hell looked real. Everyone was expecting him to auger in. If it was a movie stunt I would like to see if it ever made it on film.

I know his helmet was fully powered up, not just props. The wing was very nicely formed around his rig and had its own cut-away system. If it was a fake someone put a lot of time into building it.

There has got to be someone from Eloy on this board that remembers it. I don't do drugs, I swear!

[quade 4]

Well, if it was a movie stunt or something, it could have been a "standard" SkyRay design which looks a hell of a lot like what you've described, but with a couple of pods attached for the "engines". All the rest could have just been prop stuff including the helmet. Winky-blinky lights on anything makes it look like it's some sort of high-tech gizmo when in fact it could just be a simple battery and a couple of LEDs.

Ask yourself this -- if the engines weren't installed, then why would he need the controls in his hands and control switches on his arm?

Fins on feet? Not really certain those would be required even if he had engines.

Damn, I wish you had more information or a photo!

Take a look at these sites and see if anything looks familiar.

http://www.skyxtreme.com/archive/sept99/index_eng.html

http://www.freesky.de/movpics.html

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[freeflydrew 0]

I was there... I have footage!!!!... I never saw him load the engines, but I saw him fly the big wing without the engines in it.
He even had a control unit on his arm. There was an intricate cutaway system. Dude was around 25 years old. Everyone was calling him buzz lightyear.
Definitely happened... I'll look for the footage and try to upload a still from it...

[quade 4]

Please do!

Photos and name would be really cool!

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[freeflydrew 0]

Here you go... I seem to remember hearing something about the wing being cutaway and breaking or something... I don't know.


***There are no engines installed on this wing... He was testing the wing without them***
No idea what his name is... everyone called him Buzz Lightyear.
Anyway, here's what I got:

buzz1.jpg-Getting ready to Flair

buzz2.jpg-Flairing

buzz3.jpg- Dude walking back with Kevin and Sonic...

buzz4.jpg- Profile of the wing...

buzz5.jpg-You get a good idea of the wing's size, and how big the engines would be if they were installed... And, check out the smaller wings on his calfs!

buzz6.jpg-Engine housing close-up, attention to cut of wing around rig, and detail on the engine housing...

buzz7.jpg-Close up, notice the spring loaded pilot chute system...

buzz8.jpg-You can see the wire (lower left side) going to the control unit on the arm...

buzz9.jpg-Notice the control unit on the left arm, and the very large red helmet with reflective lens...

buzz10.jpg-Again the control unit on the left arm

It really happened!
12/00-01/01 Eloy, AZ

[quade 4]

Very interesting!

Looking at #6 sure makes it seem a lot more like a prop that an actual engine nacell though.

And those wings look very small in terms of surface area.

As far as a prop for a movie or demo jump (maybe smoke canisters go inside the nacells) I think the thing would absolutely rock, but I can't say that it looks like it's going to provide a lot of lift.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[Yoshi 0]

way cool. that would be so fun to watch. so how would a birdman suit compare to one of these rigid wings?

-yoshi

_________________________________________
this space for rent.

[BlueEyedMonster 0]

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Very interesting!

Looking at #6 sure makes it seem a lot more like a prop that an actual engine nacell though.

And those wings look very small in terms of surface area...//...but I can't say that it looks like it's going to provide a lot of lift.

Glider and U2 wings are very long and narrow like these. Long, narrow, straight wings are more effecient. Fighter jet wings are swept back because long wings would be torn apart by the supersonic shockwave.

The engine nacells look very functionall to me. In fact, if they were for show, I think they would look "cooler", and less functional.

[quade 4]

These wings aren't particularly long. They'd need to be going pretty damn fast to create enough lift to maintain level flight.

As for the nacells, in picture #6 look carefully at the decorative "spinner" and front "fan blades" (or whatever the hell that spoke looking thing is). If a real engine were to be mounted in the nacells, these decorative touches would not only be superfluous, but would actually be a hindrance to the airflow.

Shiny "chrome" though, both on the front and rear of the nacells. You don't see that very often on real jet engines -- especially after the hot section. So, in my opinion, they already look "cooler" than required by reality.

And what the hell is with the "V" tail?

I sent out a couple of emails to some folks that might know about this. It'll be interesting to see what they hve to say.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[BlueEyedMonster 0]

They stated they were testing the wing without the engines. If I was doing that, I would put someting in there of similar weight, shape, and drag. Looks pretty close to me. microjet

And maybe you are right about the not enough lift... that is probably why it disappeared. 2 -80lb thust engines are not strong enough to give him the speed he would need for that with the drag of a human body.

[TrickyDicky 0]

If he were to jump with engines I think it would be fucking dangerous.

Aside from the possible dangers heat of the engines (how hot do these size engines get?) if he got into a stall and built up a lot of speed, wouldnt it be extreamly hard to pull out of with those engines fired up?

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[freeflydrew 0]

He had a pretty intricate cutaway system to release the wing...

[jtval 0]

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If he were to jump with engines I think it would be fucking dangerous.

Aside from the possible dangers heat of the engines (how hot do these size engines get?) if he got into a stall and built up a lot of speed, wouldnt it be extreamly hard to pull out of with those engines fired up?

control alone would be a night mare. he'd probly be so out of control with that must thrust. Can you imagine if he had to cutaway....YIKES the nightmares!

it LOOKS cool though and we all know thats what skydiving is about: looking cool

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[goose491 0]

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Aside from the possible dangers heat of the engines (how hot do these size engines get?)

Damn Hot! Wings would have to be a lot longer just to distance the engines from him. Saw a documentery on a dude that was making similar small engines. He had to stand about 5-6 feet away to ignite them and once they really got going, he had to back up further.... Likely burn up the legs a bit judging by the location on the wings in the pics.... and I don't think I'd like both my canopies that close to 'em either.

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if he got into a stall and built up a lot of speed, wouldnt it be extreamly hard to pull out of with those engines fired up?

Well, thing about those little jets: There awful difficult to start up (dude from the documentary had to use a leaf blower to get his going). However, they are consiquently sh*t-simple to shut down so who knows?

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