Wingsuit flying

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 create lift. The wingsuit creates the surface area with fabric between the legs and under the arms. A wingsuit may be referred to as a birdman suit or squirrel suit.

A wingsuit flight ends with a parachute opening, so a wingsuit can be flown from any point that provides sufficient altitude to glidethrough the air, such as skydiving aircraft or BASE jumping exit points, and to allow a parachute to deploy.

The wingsuit flier wears parachute equipment designed for skydiving or BASE jumping. The flier deploys the parachute at a planned altitude and unzips the arm wings, if necessary, so they can reach up to the control toggles and fly to a normal parachute landing.

History

Wings were first used in the 1930s as an attempt to increase horizontal movement. These early wingsuits were made of materials such as canvas, wood, silk, steel, and even whalebone. They were not very reliable. According to wingsuit lore, between 1930 and 1961, 72 of the 75 original birdmen died testing their wingsuits[citation needed]. Some "birdmen", notablyClem Sohn and Leo Valentin, claimed to have glided for miles.

In the mid-1990s, French skydiver Patrick de Gayardon developed a wingsuit that had unparalleled safety and performance. Unfortunately, de Gayardon died on April 13, 1998 while testing a new modification to his parachute container in Hawaii; his death is attributed to a rigging error which was part of the new modification rather than a flaw in the suit's design.

In early 1998, Tom Begic, a BASE jumper from Australia, built and flew his own wingsuit based on a photograph of Patrick de Gayardon and his ideas. The suit was developed to assist Begic in capturing freefall footage of BASE jumpers while jumping the high cliffs of Europe. The benefits of the suit included: reduced freefall descent rates, increased freefall times, greater maneuverability around other jumpers and objects whilst in freefall, the potential to jump off sites around the world that were not possible without wingsuits, and the ability to accelerate away from underhung walls much more quickly. In early 1999, Begic stopped development of his suit when he met Robert Pečnik and learned of plans for the creation of a wingsuit manufacturing company. (Phoenix Fly was started in the mid 2000s.)

Commercial area

In 1999, Jari Kuosma of Finland and Robert Pečnik of Croatia teamed up to create a wingsuit that was safe and accessible for all skydivers when they established BirdMan, Inc. BirdMan's Classic, designed by Pecnik, was the first wingsuit offered to the general public. BirdMan was the first manufacturer to advocate the safe use of wingsuits by creating an instructor program. Created by Kuosma, the instructor program's aim was to remove the stigma that wingsuits were dangerous and to provide wingsuit beginners (Generally, skydivers with a minimum of 200 jumps) with a way to safely enjoy what was once considered the most dangerous feat in the skydiving world. With the help of Birdman instructors Scott Campos, Chuck Blue and Kim Griffin, a standardized program of instruction was developed that prepared instructors.^[1] Phoenix-Fly, Fly Your Body, and Nitro Rigging have also instituted an instructor training program.

Non-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 or hot air balloon, is fundamentally different from exiting a moving aircraft as the initial wind speed 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.

The main difference between the squirrel suit and a flying squirrel is that the real squirrel can use its tail as a rudder and is able to slow itself down while in the air, whereas the wingsuit base jumper still needs a parachute.

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.

wingsuite flyer

A wingsuit flier manipulates the shape of his body to create the desired amount of lift and drag although most wingsuits have a 2 to 1 ratio. This means that for every foot they drop, they go two feet forward. With body shape manipulation and by choosing the design characteristics of the wingsuit, a flier can alter both his forward speed and fall rate. A pilot can choose to manipulate his fall rate towards Earth with the goal of achieving the slowest vertical speed in order to prolong time in freefall, or the pilot can try to maximize the horizontal glide distance across the Earth. The pilot manipulates these flight characteristics by changing the shape of his torso, arching or bending at the shoulders, hips, and knees, and by changing the angle of attack in which the wingsuit flies in the relative 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 will indicate 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. An instantaneous velocity of -25 mph (-40 km/h) has been recorded.

The suit also enables the wearer to travel longer distances horizontally; glide ratios of 2.5:1 are commonplace.

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