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Do any of these wing suit flyers ever land without a 'chute? I'm thinking if they could keep their forward speed low and catch an up draft of something. Much like a glider landing or similar. Anyone know what kind of speeds they are hitting and how slow they can go without stalling?
Try doing a search for Gary Connnery,
Yes. I think I am right in saying all of the people that have ever done that have died eventually (EDIT: I see Mr Connery is still alive)
Maybe you could touch down on the roof of a moving car?
A better comparison for landing would be a bird on a branch. You would approach from below, redirect upwards and as your vertical and horizontal speed hit zero reach your landing spot.
Not a lot of room for failure and hard to rehearse.
So I'm going NO. Wingsuits have appalling glide angles and a high stall speed. I can't see them flaring to a controllable landing, especially as its only their speed that gives the pilot control.
Would the car need to be on a conveyer belt?
What? Behind the sliding doors?
It's the same concept as landing a paraglider, though with the minimal wing area, you don't have the lift or braking ability to flare properly.
The engineering to construct a wingsuit that would allow you to land cleanly is probably possible, though I'd imagine you'd need extension spars to get the necessary wing area and likely some kind of exoskeleton structure to protect the pilot from the additional leverage generated.
As far as I know, a clean flared landing to a hard surface hasn't been done yet.
In the meantime check out this dude, who has some badass skim skills:
I imagine if you get it wrong there would be no possibility of going around for a second attempt!
That video would appear to be a fake according to googling
Oh, he's French....That's a surprise.
Find a dude doing something nuts, he's normally French.
Just watched the video...hmmm, the landing, bit suspicious that.
I zinc ee is pulling the leg.
glide ratio for a wingsuit is 2.5:1 ish (2.5m forward for every 1m down)
glide ratio for a glider is 40-60:1
wingsuit flying is more like directional falling than flying
wingsuits are not lighter than air flying like other forms of gliding where you can ride thermals and upgraghts and actually gain altitude. All wingsuits do is slightly slow you down and give you some enhanced directional control whilst falling. They're more like a very small parachute. You can't ride thermals and updraghts with a wingsuit as you simply don't have the wing area - compare the size of a paraglider wing to the 'wings' of a wingsuit.
Given the progress they've made since they first started jumping wingsuits in the early noughties I suspect they'll get there eventually.
Tim, the guy in this vid was doing some of the first wingsuit jumps in the UK and it shows how much control you can get on a small parachute, even back then (this vid was early noughties) - so refinement of the kit and techniques and I suspect it'll be done in time. Gary Connery's effort is the closest so far
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in a moving car[/url]
wobbliscott - Member
wingsuits are not lighter than air flying like other forms of gliding where you can ride thermals and upgraghts and actually gain altitude
Gliding is never 'Lighter than air". You only go up because the air is rising faster then you are sinking through it, be it slope, wave or thermal lift.
Seen this one...
He 'lands' on a pile of cardboard boxes 😯 8)