11/24/08 8:25 AM

JET PACK PILOT AIMS TO CROSS COLORADO GORGE.

The Osgood File. I'm Charles Osgood.

Today's the day Eric Scott is going to attempt to fly from the north side of Colorado's Royal Gorge Canyon to the south side, using only the power in the Go Fast Jet Pack on his back, powered by hydrogen peroxide. No wing, no rotors, and no parachute...

SOT - Eric Scott
"These machines weren't made with parachutes. They were made actually for this type of thing for the military..."

The gorge is 1,500 feet across and 1,100 feet deep. No one has ever done this before.

SOT - Eric Scott
"I just look forward to being over here at the end and saying, 'What was I thinking.' (laughs)"

What is this Go Fast Jet Pack Eric Scott will be wearing?

SOT - Eric Scott
"It's an actual rocket, which generates just under 800 horsepower. And, it flies like a helicopter, but there is no wing or rotor with this machine. It's just sheer power --- superheated steam is coming out at supersonic velocity..."

Can it handle this jump over the gorge?

SOT - Eric Scott
"I'm pretty much going to take it to its extreme level to clear this distance and get to the other side in time..."
What is the distance?

SOT - Eric Scott
"Approximately 15-hundred feet across it, which is a couple of hundred feet more than a quarter of a mile..."

Have you flown that far with it before?

SOT - Eric Scott
"I'll have to achieve speeds faster than I ever have in the past to get across it."

What's your fail-safe?

SOT - Eric Scott
"There is no fail-safe. There's no tether, there's no parachute --- and that's where it is..."

You're confident, though?

SOT - Eric Scott
"In flights that I've done over 16 years, the machine has never failed. If the machine had failed even two or three times on me in the past, I wouldn't do this. I'm willing to take the one in 800-and-whatever chance..."

In 2003, a stunt parachutist jumped off a bridge spanning that gorge, miscalculated and fell to his death. Scott knows that.

SOT - Eric Scott
"Certainly a number of variables involved, but all that taken into consideration --- I'm going for it."

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The Osgood File. Charles Osgood on the CBS Radio Network.
The Osgood File. November 24th, 2008