Flying Humans

mlimber sends us to the NYTimes for a story about flying people who jump from planes or other high locations wearing a wing suit akin to a flying squirrel's. Their efforts have potential military and Xtreme sports applications. The story profiles, with video, one guy who wants to be the first to jump from a plane and land without a parachute (and live). Here's a YouTube video of another of these fliers skimming six feet above skiers in the Swiss Alps. Quoting: "Modern suit design features tightly woven nylon sewn between the legs and between the arms and torso, creating wings that fill with air and create lift, allowing for forward motion and aerial maneuvers while slowing descent. As the suits, which cost about $1,000, have become more sophisticated, so have the pilots. The best fliers, and there are not many, can trace the horizontal contours of cliffs, ridges and mountainsides."

Comments

64 years late!

[Eric Smith]

one guy who wants to be the first to jump from a plane and land without a parachute (and live)

He's at least 64 years too late. Alan Magee and Nick Alkemade already survived jumps from aircraft without parachutes in 1943 and 1944.

Re:64 years late!

[Architect_sasyr]

That and this sort of thing has been around for years. Outside of of the cinema and within, take the angels in "Reign of Fire", I'm pretty sure I've even seen it in a bond flick. The Guinness Book of Records has something of it. Slow news day at /. HQ?

Re:64 years late!

[Repton]

That's not quite the same thing -- they didn't plan to jump without a parachute. If you throw enough people out of aeroplanes (as WWII did), it's not quite so amazing if a couple survive. This guy wants to be one from one -- much more difficult.

Re:64 years late!

[ottothecow]

When you think about it, it doesn't really matter how far they fall as long as it is past a certain threshold.

With a the wind resistance of a skydiver on earth, you would reach your terminal velocity of around 125MPH in about 1500ft or about the height of the sears tower.

Of course this still is pretty high and has a very high risk of death, it would result in only the same risk of death as a fall from 15,000 ft.

Re:64 years late!

[Eric Smith]

In the cases I cited, the people apparently did plan to jump without a parachute. They were faced with two alternatives, of which both were likely fatal, and chose to jump.

I disagree with your assessment that "it's not quite so amazing if a couple survive." Someone falling from tens of thousands of feet with no protection and surviving is amazing by any reasonable standard.

This guy wants to be one from one -- much more difficult.

I disagree with that also. If you plan it for months or years, develop suitable technology, model and simulate it, do various tests before the real attempt, etc., it should be much less difficult to survive it than if you're forced to do it by circumstances.

Re:64 years late!

[harl]

Perfectly good airplane?!

Have you seen jump planes? No seats and there's a huge hole in the wall.

I can honestly say without caveat that of the hundreds of rides I've taken on Twin Otters not once have I safely landed in one.

Re:64 years late!

[Megane]

Okay, fine. Then this guy can become the first to survive two jumps without a parachute.

The best fliers

[Anonymous Coward]

The best fliers, and there are not many,
That is because the bad one die.

Darwinism in action

Re:The best fliers

[Seferino]

Of course not, it's Intelligent Design !

OB In Soviet Russia

[davidwr]

In Soviet Russia, Boris and Natasha get Moose and Flying Human.

Re:OB In Soviet Russia

[hazem]

You joke about Soviet Russia, but when I was a paratrooper - many years ago - there were stories of how the Russians would drop airborne troops by flying very low and dropping them into to snow drifts.

Maybe they just told us that so we wouldn't bitch about how fast we hit the ground WITH parachutes... One thing the army taught me is that someone ALWAYS has it worse.

Re:OB In Soviet Russia

[AJWM]

Which reminds me of the story of a group of draftees (this goes back a ways) who were selected to begin jump training. They were told how they'd begin jumping the next day. There was some muttering and in response to "Any questions?", one soldier asks "how high will we be jumping from, sir?"
    "About 2,500 feet."
    More muttering, and the guy hesitantly raises his hand to ask another question: "Uh, couldn't we start a little lower, maybe 200 feet?"
    "200 feet!? Good god, man, the parachutes won't have time to open!"
    "Oh, parachutes. You didn't tell us we'd be using parachutes."

(I've got a couple of static-line jumps under my belt, but decided it'd be more useful to learn to pilot the plane than to jump out of it.)

Re:OB In Soviet Russia

[AndersOSU]

How long does it take to train a paratrooper?






Three weeks.
The first week they separate the men from the boys.
The second week they separate the men from the fools.
The third week they throw the fools out of a plane.

I got mine...

[Marko DeBeeste]

...from Acme products. Tragically the roadrunner continues to elude me.

Why?

[Meshach]

I love the quote from the article:

Which leads to an obvious and inevitable question: Why?
"Because everybody thinks that it's not possible," Mr. Corliss said. "The point is to show people anything can be done. If you want to do amazing things, then you have to take amazing risks."

That sums up so much. Why does any one do anything? Who does anyone jump out from the sky? Why does anyone contribute to open source?

Because it is there

Re:Why?

[FooAtWFU]

Bah. I am skeptical. I think there's another answer, for when the reality of it being possible sets in: because flying is danged fun.

I mean, why do people go on roller coasters? Not because it's impossible, that's for sure...

Re:Why?

[Aneurysm]

Sorry, I didn't mean to jibe. I know what you're saying and I agree, althought I think the quote is more about making huge risks for huge gains (but also potential losses). Sometimes it just feels like Godwins Law somtimes on slashdot though, except like this: As a Slashdot thread grows longer, the probability of a comparison to the benefits of open source approaches one. In fact I name it Aneurysm's law :)

Darwin Awards

[wildsurf]

The best fliers, and there are not many

Darwin in action.

Re:Darwin Awards

[cowscows]

Actually, doesn't the term "the best" by definition sort of mean there can't be that many? The best means superior to all others, and unless you're talking about something that has an absolute and measurable limit to "perfection", then "the best" is a pretty exclusive club.

An understatement

[iamacat]

The landing, as one might expect, poses the biggest challenge,

I would say it's the only challenge actually. Gliding around in any winged suit is fun and safe as long as you still open the chute at the end.

Re:An understatement

[blastwave]

The principal difficulty seems to be in throwing oneself at the ground and missing.

I ponder

[downix]

would it be possible to use an engine to turn these gliders into true flying suits? Similar to the Bell suit, but with real lift to allow it to fly for longer?

Re:I ponder

[rts008]

Check this out:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHYXrqoS08o&feature=related. Is this anything like you were asking about?

Re:I ponder

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course it would! Just put telescoping poles on each limb and increase the wingspan about 20 feet or so... then add an engine and a propeller... maybe incase the guy in some kind of lightweight metal to protect him from the wind and such and to make him a bit more aerodynamic...

Re:I ponder

[Mawbid]

yup

Re:I ponder

[djupedal]

"...possible to use an engine to turn these gliders into true flying suits? "

Pull my finger, Phillip, and we'll see....

Falling with style

[inflamed]

Kinda like Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story

Bad news...

[talkingpaperclip]

"one guy who wants to be the first to jump from a plane and land without a parachute (and live"

I have some bad news for this idiot. Plenty of people have survived jumping out of planes without parachutes.

Nick Alkemade was an RAF tail gunner in World War II who jumped out of his flaming plane and fell 18,000 feet. He only suffered a sprained leg after he hit a tree and landed in snow.

Vesna Vulovic was a flight attendant who fell out of a plane after an explosion, fell in snow, and survived.

Re:Bad news...

[xSauronx]

Vesna Vulovic was a flight attendant who fell out of a plane after an explosion, fell in snow, and survived.

And he liked it!

Re:Bad news...

[Timothy Brownawell]

Vesna Vulovic was a flight attendant who fell out of a plane after an explosion, fell in snow, and survived. And he liked it!

I don't think so... Vesna Vulovic was female. ;)

After the accident, at least...

Been around for 10 years

[greenbird]

These things have been around for 10 years. Google Birdman Suit or go to any skydiving boogie. Anyone with a D license can demo one.

Re:Been around for 10 years

[Leebert]

Yeah, Here's a picture of a friend of mine jumping from a skyvan with one on:

http://leebert.org/skydive/jump2.jpg

Sad that the flash didn't fire as I expected. Would have been a great shot.

(I took up skydiving two summers ago... I finally actually finished AFF last summer. Hopefully will get my "A" license this spring, when it warms back up again.)

Patrick De Gayardon

[goatpunch]

Patrick was working on developing these winged suits before he died when a rigging error caused his parachute to malfunction. He was planning a way of skiing with one of these suits, so that he could take off and land on the way down. http://www.bpa.org.uk/skydive/pages/people/gayardon.htm

Blue Skies Patrick

Re:That wasn't flying! That was... falling with st

[McFadden]

Dammit... Now I want to know about the library incident.

Re:Flying?

[gstoddart]

Are their any true airfoils involved? This seems like nothing more than a creative way to fall.

"That's not flying, it's falling with style"

Woody, Toy Story

The Man Who Rode the Thunder

[pigiron]

In 1960 William Rankin ejected from his F8U Crusader jet at 48,000 feet and his parachute was ripped away in the jet stream. He traveled 150 miles and didn't come down for an hour. There are more stories like it here: http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/ffreading.html

Re:The Man Who Rode the Thunder

[goatpunch]

Sorry, here's the TIME story from 1959: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,937849,00.html

Safe Practice

[Doc Ruby]

The tricky part of these wingsuits is how to practice enough to get good, without smashing to goo because you're not good enough.

Now there's a solution, that's probably fun enough in itself that many "skydivers" won't ever have to take a risk at all: SkyVenture has wind tunnels set up around the world expressly for simulating skydiving, but without jumping out of a plane. Jumps that last 2-3 minutes, with 45-60 minute setup and plane rides each jump, can now spend hours just "diving" in the chamber.

Maybe once the skills of maneuvering are learned in the tunnel, a suit wearer can tackle the real sport: facing the fear of jumping out of a plane with nothing but a simulator history to save them from smashing to bits.

Better video

[blhack]

There is a much better video of what you can do with one of these suits Here

Wile E's failure...

[dgun]

...is our gain. It was going good for him until he got smug about it.

Any Aerodynamics Testing?

[PPH]

It would be interesting to see if any legit aerodynamics analysis and/or testing has been done on these suits?

It appears that the suits are just trading vertical speed for horizontal speed. That might keep the flyer from making a crater in a field somewhere, but the human body won't tolerate a 100 MPH slide along the ground very well either. It might be possible to 'land' on a ski slope or a lake. But if the goal is to set down on flat ground, that speed will have to be reduced.

The aero folks get concerned with things like wing loading, drag and stall speed when figuring aircraft landing characteristics. The same would appear to apply here. Unfortunately, we already know what one suitable (no pun intended) glider configuration looks like that is safe for humans. It's a paraglider configuration. I don't think you can hang that much airfoil between your arms and legs.

Re:Any Aerodynamics Testing?

[Jarik C-Bol]

there was an article in popular science some time ago about these suits, that went into some detail about the physics of it all. The trouble turns out to be, that if you built a suit with enough wing material to give you enough drag to go slow enough to land without a normal 'chute, you'd rip your arms and legs off when you jumped out of the plane. the wings we have at this point are just shy of the maximum size the human body can stand to open mid flight without loosing an appendage. Thus, as it stands now, the current basic design of the suit (wing between the legs, and under each arm to the leg, reverse delta wing style) won't work, and someone has to do some serious design work to come up with an alternate design/materials/technique of flying to create a way to fly, and then finally apply enough drag to land. the way I personally see it (and i am not a physicist ) the solutions may be some sort of imaginary material like in batman that when an electrical charge is applied, it becomes rigid, and has a tensile strength near that of steel, which would allow you to make a suit that became rigid on command. thus, you make the suit, where you launch with small wings, fly, ridgidize the suit, and then cause the wings to expand somehow, giving you enough drag to land, but short of a parachute.

Re:Any Aerodynamics Testing?

[hawicz]

uh, no. Sorry, but you're not going to rip your arms and legs off, and suits are definitely not "just shy of the maximum size the human body can stand". The limiting factor is how long your arms and legs are, and how far apart you can spread them. Anyway, even if you were approaching limb wrenching sizes there's a simple solution: bring your arms and legs in. That's what you have to do now when exiting (at least if you want to avoid the tail of the plane), and when opening your chute so you gain enough speed for it to inflate properly.

Also, you don't need any fancy materials, or "electric charge" to make a rigid suit. They already _are_ rigid, using the same method that parachutes use: airspeed to inflate the cells. Some of them even have airlocks to keep them inflated even if you slow down.

Obligatory Far Side Caption

[jpellino]

"Say what's a mountain goat doing way up here in a cloud bank?"

Hey!

[markov_chain]

I was not necessarily saying that open source is just as exciting as jumping out of a plane.

Speak for yourself there, buddy! :)

Vesna Vulovic

[XSforMe]

Vesna Vulovic, a stewardess for JAT airlines holds the world record for surviving a free fall without a parachute.

Pass...

[thatskinnyguy]

Just look at the suit! It would sharply direct 140mph air at my man parts!

Summer recruits

[Harmonious Botch]

Yeah, the Russian commanders probably told them that they didn't have it so bad - the guys who were drafted in the summer had to do it without snow.

A suit?

[omnipresentbob]

And here I thought it was Python...

Much less difficult?

[djw]

If you plan it for months or years, develop suitable technology, model and simulate it, do various tests before the real attempt, etc., it should be much less difficult to survive it than if you're forced to do it by circumstances. Isn't that like saying it's much less difficult to become President after you've won the election?

Re:Free Fall? No Problem!

[ColaMan]

Look around for a proportionate personal vehicle--some large, flat, aerodynamically suitable piece of wreckage.

Unfortunately at this point, all those bits are still wayyyy above you, flapping about as they tumble gently to earth. You, however, having been in the "dead spider" position for a few minutes, are wayyyy below them. Bummer.

But still, keep your hopes up and your mind clear, and you'll be able to take some nice shots with your cameraphone, smiling and waving cheekily as you plumment to earth. Try and get into one of those legs-crossed hindu levitation positions for the last ones - they'll look a treat.

Lethal dose of height

[spineboy]

The height at which 50% of the people die from a fall is about 50 feet( actually 4 stories or 48 feet). The Lethal Dose at which 90% of people die (LD 90) is approximately 84 feet , or 7 stories. At least those numbers are what we use in medicine in an urban setting. Falls outside may be cushioned by trees/ bushes,snow, etc and may change the numbers. Obviously there exists anecdotal evidence of people falling 5 feet and dieing and people who fell 20,000 feet and lived, but statistically those are the numbers collected by medical literature.

You hit the ground at about 35-36 MPH from a 48 foot fall, at 84 feet - about 50 MPH. Actually speeds are a little bit smaller,since I didn't takeinto account the effect of wind resistance and body density, and just used the simple physica acceleration formula V^2 = U^2 + 2AS

I'm an orthopaedic surgeon, and when fall/jump from those heights, putting them back together can be a bit "tricky", and the pieces don't always go back together well. When the suicide jumper only jumps from 40 feet and lives with horrible fractures, we sometimes joke that they didn't read the literature and plan things out correctly. Now the person is depressed AND may have bad arthritic pain from their smashed joints now, or just be plain old paralyzed.
Life sucks.....and then you live.

Jeff Corliss

[Anonymous Coward]

Jeff Corliss, a wing suiter / BASE jumper discussed in the article, is freaking insane. I saw a show about his BASE jumping exploits. The craziest part of the show was a tragic wingsuit jump that Corliss and a friend did to cap off a BASE jumping festival. The plan was for Corliss to fly under the a bridge while his friend flew over it. Unfortunately, Corliss's friend didn't quite clear the bridge, and pieces of his body rained down on Corliss. Corliss discusses it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug1rCyeNujU

It's disturbing. Extreme BASE jumpers like Corliss have friends die left and right, and they just keep on doing. They're clearly crazy, but I still find I that I have a certain respect for their commitment to pushing the limits.

Not many of the best fliers...

[Aqualung812]

The best fliers, and there are not many, can trace the horizontal contours of cliffs, ridges and mountainsides.

Would there not be many because few have tried, or because when you try you have two outcomes: Live or die? Those that live become the best I assume? What about the average ones?

It reminds me of a saying: "There are stupid exterme skiers and there are old extreme skiers, but there are no old, stupid extreme skiers..."