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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."
The best fliers, and there are not many,
That is because the bad one die.
Darwinism in action
In Soviet Russia, Boris and Natasha get Moose and Flying Human.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
...from Acme products. Tragically the roadrunner continues to elude me.
Faith: n. -- That human impulse that drives them to steal appliances when the power goes out
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
"Maybe this world is another planet's hell"
Aldous Huxley
The best fliers, and there are not many
Darwin in action.
Weeks of coding saves hours of planning.
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.
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?
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
Kinda like Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story
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.
Who is John Galt?
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
Worst BBC News Stories
Dammit... Now I want to know about the library incident.
"That's not flying, it's falling with style"
Woody, Toy Story
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
And he liked it!
By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth. -- George Carlin
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
There is a much better video of what you can do with one of these suits Here
NewslilySocial News. No lolcats allowed.
...is our gain. It was going good for him until he got smug about it.
FAQs are evil.
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.
Have gnu, will travel.
"Say what's a mountain goat doing way up here in a cloud bank?"
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
I don't think so... Vesna Vulovic was female. ;)
After the accident, at least...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.
And here I thought it was Python...
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.
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
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.
..........FULL STOP.
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..."
Grammer Nazis - I mod you "troll" unless you actually add something on-topic. Yes, I know I have mispellings in my sig.