Since I was young, I have always been interested in flying. For me, the ability to soar above the clouds and high above the ground, seemingly weightless, able to see for miles and able to enjoy sometimes the peace of being in the air and sometimes the excitement of speed in the air, have always been an attraction.
I first realised my dream when I became a jet fighter pilot in the Swiss Air Force, flying Mirage IIIS Fighter jets.
Besides achieving my ambition to fly, and flying in an exciting aircraft, I also in this time learnt the more serious and professional aspects of flight - especially the aspects of safety, responsibility, attention to detail and endurance - which are some of the many requirements for making flying and enjoyable but safe experience.
After the completion of my military service, and in order to continue to combine my passion for flight with my career, I re-trained and qualified as a pilot of Swissair, a major European Airline, flying Boeing and Airbus, throughout Europe and the world.
Being a member of this prestigious airline, and part of their pilot community, gave me as much satisfaction as it is
possible to get from a career, and yet, I still felt that there was something missing.
For me, each step of my advancement through my pilots career took me further and further in terms of realising the full extent of my passion for flying, but all of them seemed to me to end too soon. No matter how advanced the aircraft - or even how close to nature it was, such as a microlite - it seemed to me that a point was always reached where it was the machine, and not the man, who was actually controlling the flight.
This seemed to me to be a limit that we imposed on ourselves, and I wanted to see if I could transcend this self-imposed limitation. I wanted to how close I could take the art of flying by humankind to its closest to nature, by fashioning a flying machine which could enable people to fly while using their own bodies to steer and control it, and be outside of the machine and in contact with the air and with nature itself - as close as possible to the flight of an eagle.
This was my vision, and I set out to realise it.
