Slashdot Mirror
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
...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
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.
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
I mean, why do people go on roller coasters? Not because it's impossible, that's for sure...
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
"That's not flying, it's falling with style"
Woody, Toy Story
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
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
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 :)
There is a much better video of what you can do with one of these suits Here
NewslilySocial News. No lolcats allowed.
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.
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...
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.