A Swiss airline pilot and adventurer, known as Rocket Man, has moved closer to becoming the first jet-powered bird man to cross the Channel.

Yves Rossy completed a 10-minute test flight last week with his jet-powered wing strapped to his back. He flew for more than 22 miles, equivalent to a flight from Calais to Dover – the route first flown by Louis Blériot in 1909.

The test flight, which had been postponed several times because of engine problems, saw Rossy jump out of a small plane 7,500ft above the town of Bex, in Switzerland. Reaching 180mph, he flew through clear skies to Villeneuve and back.

Rossy, wearing a heat-resistant suit similar to those worn by racing drivers, steered by shifting his weight or simply turning his head and shoulders. He deployed two parachutes at 5,000ft and 4,000ft to land at Bex airfield with two litres of fuel left.

Rossy used an 8ft carbon-fibre wing powered by four jet engines. “Everything went well, it was awesome, it’s my longest flight with this wing. If there are no technical problems it’s okay for the English Channel,” he said. Asked how confident he was, he replied: “I did the distance, everything is going swimmingly.”

Rossy is due to cross the Channel on September 24, weather permitting. The event will be broadcast live in 165 countries by the National Geographic Channel. “My flight will be a tribute to all those who came before me, many of whom were killed,” he said.

The 48-year-old Rossy is a former fighter pilot in the Swiss air force. He has been thinking about how to fly like a powered bird for 10 years and has transformed the garage of his home in a village near Lake Geneva into a workshop.

While experimenting with an earlier version of his wing three years ago he lost control and spiralled to just 1,600ft from the ground before managing to open his parachute.

Rossy’s friend and adviser Bruno Brokken, a world champion aeronautic acrobat from Belgium, paid tribute to his persistence. “Many people would have given up years ago. I wouldn’t do the things he does. You need to be a special kind of person to do that kind of stuff.”

In May Rossy staged his first public flight, an acrobatic display over the Alps, including a 360-degree roll that he admitted afterwards was to “impress the girls”. His trials have cost his sponsors, including the Swiss watch company Hublot, more than £100,000.

He says he is always strict about safety but acknowledges that the more progress he makes the longer he waits before pulling the cord of his parachute when something goes wrong.

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