What is Wingsuit Flying ?

Wingsuit Flying Video

Wingsuit flying is the sport of flying the human body through the air using a special jumpsuit, called a wingsuit, which adds surface area to the human body to enable a significant increase in lift. Modern wingsuits, first developed in the late 1990s, create the surface area with fabric between the legs and under the arms. Wingsuits are sometimes referred to as a birdman suit (after the makers of the first commercially available wingsuit), flying squirrel suit (due to their resemblance to the animal. Squirrel is now the name of a commercial wingsuit manufacturer), or bat suit (due to their vague resemblance to the animal or perhaps the superhero).

A wingsuit flight normally ends with a parachute opening. So a wingsuit can safely be flown from any point that provides sufficient altitude for flight and parachute deployment (normally a skydiving drop aircraft or BASE jump exit point).

The wingsuit flier wears parachute equipment designed for skydiving or BASE jumping. The parachute flight is normal but for the extra step of the canopy pilot unzipping their arm wings to allow full arm mobility necessary for safe canopy flight.

History

Wings were first used by 19 year old American Rex G. Finney of Los Angeles, California in 1930 as an attempt to increase horizontal movement and maneuverability.^[1][2] These early wingsuits were made of materials such as canvas, wood, silk, steel, and even whale bone. They were not very reliable. Some “birdmen”, notably Clem Sohn and Leo Valentin, claimed to have glided for miles. The wingsuit was showcased in the 1969 movie The Gypsy Moths starring Burt Lancaster and Gene Hackman.

On 31 October 1997, French skydiver Patrick de Gayardon showed reporters a wingsuit with allegedly unparalleled safety and performance.^[3][4] De Gayardon died on 13 April 1998 while testing a new modification to his parachute container in Hawaii; his death is attributed to a rigging error that was part of the new modification rather than a flaw in the suit’s design.^[5]

Technical mechanics

The wingsuit flier enters freefall wearing both a wingsuit and parachute equipment. Exiting an aircraft in a wingsuit requires skilled techniques that differ depending on the location and size of the aircraft door. These techniques include the orientation relative to the aircraft and the airflow while exiting, and the way in which the flier will spread his legs and arms at the proper time so as not to hit the aircraft or become unstable in the relative wind. The wingsuit will immediately start to fly upon exiting the aircraft in the relative wind generated by the forward speed of the aircraft. Exiting from a BASE jumping site, such as a cliff, or exiting from a helicopter, a paraglider, or a hot air balloon, is fundamentally different from exiting a moving aircraft, as the initial airspeed upon exit is absent. In these situations, a vertical drop using the forces of gravity to accelerate is required to generate the airspeed that the wingsuit can then convert to lift.

At a planned altitude above the ground in which a skydiver or BASE jumper would typically deploy his parachute, a wingsuit flier will deploy his parachute. The parachute will be flown to a controlled landing at the desired landing spot using typical skydiving or BASE jumping techniques.

A wingsuit modifies the body area exposed to wind to increase the desired amount of lift with respect to drag generated by the body. An attainable glide ratio of some wingsuits is 2.5 or more^{[citation needed]}. This means that for every meter dropped, two and a half meters are gained moving forward. This ratio can be referred to as flight efficiency. With body shape manipulation and by choosing the design characteristics of the wingsuit, a flier can alter both his forward speed and fall rate. The pilot manipulates these flight characteristics by changing the shape of his torso, de-arching and/or rolling of the shoulders and moving hips and knees, and by changing the angle of attack in which the wingsuit flies in therelative wind, and by the amount of tension applied to the fabric wings of the suit. The absence of a vertical stabilizing surface results in little damping around the yaw axis, so poor flying technique can result in a spin that requires active effort on the part of the skydiver to stop.

Wingsuit fliers can measure their performance relative to their goals with the use of freefall computers that record the amount of time they were in flight, the altitude they deployed their parachute, and the altitude they entered freefall. The fall rate speed can be calculated from this data and compared to previous flights. GPS receivers can also be used to plot and record the flight path of the suit, and when analyzed can indicate the amount of distance flown during the flight. BASE jumpers can use landmarks on exit points, along with recorded video of their flight by ground crews, to determine their performance relative to previous flights and the flights of other BASE jumpers at the same site.

A typical skydiver’s terminal velocity in belly to earth orientation ranges from 110 to 140 mph (180–225 km/h). A wingsuit can reduce these speeds dramatically. A verticalinstantaneous velocity of −25 mph (−40 km/h) has been recorded.^[7] However the speed at which the body advances forward through the air is still much higher.

The tri-wing wingsuit has three individual ram-air wings attached under the arms and between the legs. The mono-wing wingsuit design incorporates the whole suit into one large wing.

Training

Flying a wingsuit adds considerable complexity to a skydive. The United States Parachute Association (USPA) requires in the Skydivers Information Manual that any jumper flying a wingsuit for the first time have a minimum of 200 freefall skydives, made within the past 18 months, and receive one-on-one instruction from an experienced wing suit jumper, or 500 jumps experience to go without an instructor.^[22]

Requirements in other nations are similar. Wingsuit manufacturers offer training courses and certify instructors, and also impose minimum jump number requirements in order to purchase a wingsuit.^[23]

Click here to learn more about wingsuit flying in wikipedia.

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