It's a guy with carbon fiber wings strapped to his back.
Elite special forces troops being dropped behind enemy lines on covert missions are to ditch their traditional parachutes in favour of strap-on stealth wings.
The lightweight carbon fibre mono-wings will allow them to jump from high altitudes and then glide 120 miles or more before landing – making them almost impossible to spot, as their aircraft can avoid flying anywhere near the target.
The technology was demonstrated in spectacular fashion three years ago when Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner – a pioneer of freefall gliding – famously 'flew' across the English Channel, leaping out of an aircraft 30,000ft above Dover and landing safely near Calais 12 minutes later.
Wearing an aerodynamic suit, and with a 6ft wide wing strapped to his back, he soared across the sea at 220mph, moving six feet forward through the air for every one foot he fell vertically – and opened his parachute 1,000ft above the ground before landing safely.
They are talking about developing small engines to extend the range even more. Sounds like an interesting technology.
UPDATE: Ace has video.
Wow, fighting solders from the sky, gliding on silent wings over 100 miles deep into Indian country, undetected. Armed and ready to engage the bad guys on their home turf. I love this kind of stuff.
Sounds promising, especially since the guy actually proved it worked by cruising over the Channel.