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Closer to Human Flight

Posted by Hemos on from the icarus-here-we-come dept.

negativeblue writes "Dropzone.com has (had) a story about the preparation of a man (Jeb Corliss) who prepares to land a wingsuit without a parachute. If you don't know the current abilities of parachutes, now-a-day, you should do your research. Basically airfoils, they can perform close to an airplane wing (high performance turns and lift)."

5 of 290 comments (clear)

  1. jeb is the man by joatmon · · Score: 4, Informative

    if you've ever seen a base jumping video 90% chance it was jeb.

  2. ...er... by skinfitz · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you don't know the current abilities of parachutes, now-a-day, you should do your research.

    Shouldn't that be wingsuits? I should dearly hope that most people know the abilities of parachutes - they have been a regular plot device in the media for years.

    1. Re:...er... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      I don't think most people know the abilities of modern day parachutes. It has been a few years ago when I left the skydive scene, but at that time huge progress was made using new materials and designs. Modern parachutes might look like ordinary square parachutes, but there are some important differences: so-called 'zero-porosity' fabrics and high-tensile fibers, combined with elliptical shaped canopies result in very efficient parachutes. Some of those can be made *extremely* small (like the Icarus mentioned in the article). Smaller canopies result in higher speeds, but also in higher descent rates. Some of those canopies cannot be landed safely without diving for speed first (using so-called 'hook-turns' or 'front-riser' turns). Seeing somebody land a high-performance parachute is rather spectacular because of the speeds involved. The gap between flying the smallest of those high-performance parachutes (and the technique needed to safely land them) and flying a wing-suite is not that big anymore, and that is what the poster meant to say.

  3. Speed is good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    The trick I think is to develop enough forward speed. More forward speed develops more lift. In a regular plane, you do something called a flare as you land. As you get close to the touchdown point, you steer up (technically, you change your angle of attack). This burns off forward speed and creates lift. This guy has a lot more freedom about his angle of attack. (Him landing on his feet would be the equivalent of a plane landing on its tail.) I think it could work but, of course, I'm not going to try it. My guess is that he will still have a lot of forward velocity when he has essentially no lift left.

    The more I think about it, the more I think I agree with the parent.

  4. Re:There is a reason by pi_rules · · Score: 3, Informative

    The actual numbers, IIRC, are 1 in 100,000 jumps are fatal. The VAST majority of these actually operator error while nearing the ground on high performance canopies. For instance taking a steep turn using your risers when you're too low and smacking the ground at 60-70mph.

    Malfs on your main parachute are 1 in 1000 from what I understood. Those are packed up in 5-10 minutes in a rather hurried fashion. Your reserve is carefully packed painstakinly by a FAA certified rigger who spends 30-45 minutes working on it VERY carefully. The reserve is also repacked every 120 days by FAA regulations.

    I don't know the stats, but a double malfunction is a VERY rare occurance. It's more than likely "operator error" that causes the death of a skydiver.