Wingsuit

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A wingsuit or wing suit is a special suit for parachutists and base jumpers with areas of fabric between arms and legs that act as wings when the air flows around them. This means that the vertical fall can be partially converted into a horizontal flight movement. Wingsuits achieve a glide ratio of up to 1: 3, i.e. H. on a one meter descent three meters of level flight are achieved. In Germany, a skydiver must have completed at least 200 parachute jumps in order to be allowed to fly with a wingsuit, initially under supervision.

Wingsuit team in the air
Preparatory training on the ground

history

Parachutist with an early wingsuit (June 2005)

As early as the early 1910s, attempts were made to influence free fall with the help of artificial wings. One of the first was probably the Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt , who in 1912 jumped to his death from the Eiffel Tower in his unsuitable “bat suit” intended for flying . More than 70 parachutists paid for the numerous experiments with their lives. The most famous among them were the French Clem Sohn and Léo Valentin. The most frequent cause of accidents was the involvement of the still very rigid structures with the main parachute . Some of the birdmen , as they called themselves, even consciously tried to land with their wings without opening the parachute.

On the Klausheider Flugtag on September 15, 1963, the "bird man" Gérard Masselin had a fatal accident while jumping from a height of 3,000 meters with a forerunner of the wingsuits. His older brother Guy also had a fatal accident in 1961 in Nancy during one of these experimental jumps, formerly known as "swing flight".

Wingsuit flyer over the coast (Nov. 2006)

At the beginning of the 1970s, the German Peter Böttgenbach carried out highly visible cross- country flights at air shows with a custom-made special suit , but this remained an isolated case due to the high risk.

In the mid-1990s, the Frenchman Patrick de Gayardon developed a wingsuit in which he sewed a new type of spoiler to his umbrella on the back. His attempts ended in a fatal crash on April 13, 1998.

In the autumn of 1998, the Finn Jari Kuosma and the Croatian Robert Pečnik began developing an easily manageable wingsuit that could be used by the average skydiver. From June 1999 the first wingsuit was available in stores under the name BirdMan . The term BirdMan suit or Birdmansuit is still used as a synonym and generic name for wingsuits.

Modern wingsuits have chambers that fill with air in order to achieve an aerodynamically favorable profile. In 2016, a slalom between 12 m high conical air-filled pylons was realized on Mont Blanc to Chamonix . In 2016 inverted flight was carried out in formation of four.

variants

Wingsuit base jumping (WiSBASE)

A WiSBASE jump from Mount Brento

De Gayardon jumped the wingsuit for the first time at the end of 1997 from a fixed location, Mount Brento near Arco , Italy . His jump from this location at an altitude of 1500 m is considered the first WiSBASE jump. 6 years later, other base jumpers started using wingsuits. Well-known places where Wisbase is practiced in Europe are the Kjerag , the Trollstigen in Norway , the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch group and Chamonix-Mont-Blanc in France.

On May 5, 2013, the Russian Valeri Rosow jumped from the pier head in the south face of the Changtse , opposite the north face of Mount Everest , from the world record jump height of 7220 m. With a wingsuit specially developed for the low air density, he fell and flew down to the Rongbuk Glacier more than 1500 meters below and landed by parachute.

Proximity flying

Flying over slopes and along mountain ridges, proximity flying , is risky and spectacular. Jeb Corliss was the first to fly (September 24, 2011) with a wingsuit through a large opening in the side of a mountain in Walenstadt, Switzerland .

Rocket propelled wingsuits

Christian Stadler, Gladbeck, developed the vegaV3 , a rocket- propelled wingsuit system , in the winter of 2006 . A steerable and controllable drive unit is integrated in the wing of the wingsuit.

Wingpacks

Rigid wings (so-called wingpacks) have been tested for several years. In 2003, Austrian extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner was the first person to cross the English Channel from Dover to Calais with a carbon wing in a free fall, jumping from an altitude of 9,800 meters. The Swiss military pilot Yves Rossy has been testing a rigid wing he developed since 2004. The latest development has wing tips that can be folded in for transport. On May 14, 2008 he presented his aircraft to the public. The take-off was done by jumping out of the aircraft with four running mini-turbines and folded wing tips. Only after the jump were the wings fully unfolded. The speed reached by the turbines should have been up to 300 km / h. The landing was done by parachute.

The Gryphon , a 15 kg heavy and 1.8 m wide CFRP wing, is currently being developed for military use . The parachutist jumps with the wing on his back from a height of approx. 10,000 meters and can cover more than 40 km in 15 minutes. In a further development stage, the range is to be multiplied with two miniature engines. In level flight, the jumper should accelerate to over 200 km / h.

Flight performance and safety

At an average horizontal flight speed of approx. 130 km / h, the best glide angle is achieved depending on the wingsuit model . The rate of descent is around 40–50 km / h, which results in a glide ratio between 1: 2 and 1: 2.5. Lower sink rates are achievable at lower horizontal speeds and a poor glide angle. Considerable distances are covered, such as when Remo Läng crosses the main Alpine ridge (from Verbier to Aosta , 26 km) after jumping from an altitude of 8,500 m.

The danger to life and the risk of accidents caused by wingsuit flying with the BASE parachute system has led to regulatory requirements in Germany: object jumpers require a permit for every jump. Jump points and landing areas must be cleared. Such permits are not required in Switzerland. However, there are complaints from the general public about the high number of accidents and deaths.

Jumping out of the plane with the wingsuit on is not much more dangerous than skydiving without the suit. The chance of twisting the parachute after opening is increased by the wing area between arms and legs, but when flying wingsuit the parachute is usually opened 500 m higher (1500 m instead of 1000 m).

Dean Potter managed the longest duration of a base wingsuit flight: in 2 minutes 50 seconds he flew almost 6.5 km after jumping off the Eiger .

Bernhard Kälin replaced Dean Potter's record with a duration of 4 minutes and 0 seconds after two years.

Media reception and projects

  • In 1997 Patrick de Gayardon jumped out of a Pilatus Porter plane and flew back onto the same plane using a wingsuit.
  • The ski film Seven Sunny Days (2007) by Matchstick Productions shows an excerpt of object jumpers wearing wingsuits flying over the Trollstigen pass road .
  • In December 2010, a group of base jumpers in wingsuits jumped from the Drygalski Mountains in Antarctica .
  • In the movie Transformers 3 , wingsuit flights a. a. performed by the Willis Tower in Chicago and filmed with 3D cameras.
  • In May 2012, Gary Connery jumped 731 meters in a wingsuit and landed in a pile of cardboard boxes without using the parachute.
  • In two missions of the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops II , published in November 2012, wingsuits from the Navy Seals operating in the game are used.
  • In the game Just Cause 3 , released in 2015, it is also possible to cover long distances with a wingsuit, which can even take place very close to the ground.
  • In the film Point Break from 2015, a group of extreme athletes races in their wingsuits for a test on a daring course in an alpine valley .

Reception in public

The public reception is mainly influenced by television reports on wingsuiters and their flights and by media reports on serious accidents and fatal flights. Examples:

  • On October 5, 2003, Dwain Weston died from impact with the railing of the Royal Gorge Bridge near Cañon City ( Colorado , USA) while attempting to fly over the bridge.
  • Shane McConkey died in March 2009. He had previously combined skiing, base jumping and the use of wingsuits in a spectacular way.
  • On August 14, 2013, Mark Sutton died in a wingsuit flight that he began (taking off from a helicopter at 3300 m above sea level) near the Swiss-French border . Sutton was best known for parachuting from a helicopter over the stadium at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London as a double for James Bond actor Daniel Craig .
  • On August 23, 2013, the Spanish base jumper Álvaro Bultó died at a wingfly event in the Bernese Oberland , Switzerland.
  • On October 8, 2013, the Hungarian jumper Viktor Kovats died in a competition with 15 participants in China (see #Marketing ), making it the 22nd death of the year.
  • At the end of March 2014, three parachutists with wingsuits had an accident in the Bernese Oberland after jumping from a helicopter.
  • On May 16, 2015, extreme athletes Dean Potter and Graham Hunt had an accident during a joint base jump in Yosemite National Park. Jumping from the 900 m high Taft Point rock, both wanted to fly with wingsuits through a narrow gap between two rocks.
  • On the occasion of the fatal impact of a wingsuit jumper on a building in Chamonix on October 3, 2016 , it is discussed that, according to the specialist magazine "Blinc", more than 30 people have died in this sport this year worldwide.

marketing

The companies Birdman, Phoenix-Fly, S-Fly, Tonysuits, Intrudair, Squirrel Suits and Rainbow Design are active as manufacturers of wingsuits.

As part of its media marketing, Red Bull also uses the phenomenon and organizes internationally organized competitions as so-called world championships among wingsuit jumpers, most recently on November 20, 2016 with 40 participants from 18 countries in the Arizona desert near Phoenix with Noah Bahnson (USA) as the winner . Three years earlier, on October 8, 2013, the World Cup on Mount Tianmen in the Chinese province of Hubei , also organized by Red Bull , resulted in the death of the Hungarian Viktor Kovat among 15 participants.

literature

  • Michael Abrams: Birdmen, Batmen, and Skyflyers: Wingsuits and the Pioneers Who Flew in Them, Fell in Them, and Perfected Them. Three Rivers Press, New York 2006, ISBN 1-4000-5492-3 (English).

Cross references

  • The stationary bodyflying in a vertical upward wind tunnel with a stabilizing speed profile is similar to the vertical fall with the wingsuit, especially with regard to the aerodynamic suit.
  • The free fall phase of the parachute jump in the air pressure prevailing at the usual heights runs faster and with a much steeper flight angle due to the lack of textile wings. But here, too, aerodynamic forces and gravity are in balance.
  • In 2016, Luke Aikins jumped free falling into a net from a height of 7600 m, without a parachute or wingsuit.

Web links

Commons : Wingsuit flying  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On wings to earth. In: Der Spiegel. 51/1955, December 14, 1955. (via Léo Valentin )
  2. ↑ 125 years of current affairs . Grafschafter Nachrichten, 11/1999, pp. 175/77.
  3. ^ The Longest Flight. Patrick de Gayardon. (No longer available online.) May 1998, archived from the original on March 16, 2010 ; accessed on September 7, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / home.n Mine.fr
  4. ↑ Squirrel >> GIGANTIC SLALOM. vimeo video (3:55), May 2016.
  5. ^ The flight of the bird men. Retrieved September 2, 2011 . William Speed ​​Weed, "Popular Science," Jul 2003, p. 56.
  6. ^ Matt Gerdes: The Great Book of BASE. BirdBrain Publishing, 2010, p. 216.
  7. ^ Daredevil makes record-breaking leap from Mount Everest. In: The Telegraph. Retrieved May 29, 2013 .
  8. ↑ Human glider flies through hole in the side of mountain. In: telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved September 28, 2011 .
  9. ↑ First living rocket airplane in the world! (No longer available online.) In: peroxidepropulsion.com. Archived from the original on March 8, 2009 ; accessed on September 26, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.peroxidepropulsion.com
  10. ^ The bird man flies over the Alps. In: act-composites.com. May 18, 2008, accessed September 19, 2010 .
  11. ↑ "Fusionman" accelerates. One-man aircraft. In: FAZ . May 14, 2008, accessed September 26, 2009 .
  12. ↑ Dan Löffler: Shaps - ParaLander - Gryphon. 2007, archived from the original on November 9, 2011 ; Retrieved September 19, 2010 .
  13. ↑ Robert Pecnik: Aerodynamic Basics. translated by Susanne Böhme, at wingsuit.de
  14. ↑ Free fall over the Alps at 500 km / h . In: welt.de. March 10, 2012, accessed April 1, 2012 .
  15. ↑ Lukas Eberle: Bats in a dive. In: Der Spiegel . September 5, 2011, accessed June 5, 2012 .
  16. ^ Extreme athlete Dean Potter among two killed Base jumping in Yosemite. In: The Guardian , May 18, 2015, accessed May 18, 2015
  17. ↑ Bruno Petroni: Two Oberlanders fly to world records . In: Berner Zeitung, Berner Zeitung . September 25, 2013, ISSN  1424-1021 ( bernerzeitung.ch [accessed July 24, 2017]).
  18. ^ Wingsuit History. ( Memento of the original from July 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Team Fly Like Brick  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.flylikebrick.com
  19. ↑ MSP's wingsuit segment from "Seven Sunny Days". (FLV) In: youtube.com. December 4, 2007, accessed on September 26, 2009 (English, trailer (2 min 27 s)).
  20. ↑ Russian daredevil Valery Rozov BASE jumps from Antarctica's Mount Ulvetanna. In: theaustralian.com , December 10, 2010.
  21. ↑ Daredevil jumps from mountain in Antarctica. In: The Daily Telegraph . December 11, 2010, accessed December 12, 2010.
  22. ^ 'Transformers' jumpers up in birdland. In: chicagotribune.com
  23. ↑ Transformers 3 - Wingsuit Flying. In: wingsuitnews.com , accessed July 5, 2011.
  24. ↑ Without a parachute into the depths. In: spiegel.de
  25. ↑ Gary Connery: stuntman completes 2400ft skydive without a parachute. In: telegraph.co.uk , accessed May 24, 2012.
  26. ↑ Black-Ops-2: New trailer for the first-person shooter with wingsuits and vehicles. In: pcgames.de
  27. ↑ Call of Duty Black Ops 2 - Gameplay Trailer: Wingsuits. In: videogameszone.de , accessed on November 19, 2012.
  28. ↑ Tim Sohn: Tribute to Shane McConkey. In: planetsnow.de , November 23, 2009.
  29. ↑ Star of the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony. In: sueddeutsche.de , August 15, 2013.
  30. ↑ Spanish base jump star falls to his death in Switzerland. In: Tages-Anzeiger for the city and canton of Zurich. 23rd August 2013.
  31. ↑ a b Frank Patalong: Protect extreme athletes from themselves! In: Spiegel Online . October 12, 2013, accessed November 21, 2016 .
  32. ↑ Third dead after wingsuit accident. In: bernerzeitung.ch , accessed on April 4, 2014.
  33. ↑ Stephan Orth: On the death of extreme sportsman Dean Potter: Der Vogelmensch. In: Spiegel Online , May 18, 2015
  34. ↑ Hit a building with a wingsuit: extreme athletes dead. In: orf.at , October 3, 2016, accessed October 3, 2016.
  35. ↑ Wingsuit Championships: Triple victory for the Americans. In: 20 minutes . November 21, 2016. Retrieved November 21, 2016 .