Human Flying Squirrels

How many of you are familiar with the sport of wing suit flying?

Me neither, until I saw a recent story on the Net that talked about the first “electrified” wing suit.

Austrian Peter Salzmann recently flew over the Austrian mountains in such a suit. Salzmann, a seasoned skydiver, teamed up with BMWi to design a chest-mounted electric propulsion system for his wing suit.

Lithium batteries power two carbon fiber rotors that provide up to five minutes of thrust, and Salzmann can activate the system in the air to increase his speed, push him to higher altitudes and increase his flight distance.

(You see, wing suit flying is essentially controlled falling while wearing something that makes you look like a flying squirrel.)

But criminy — these extreme sport maniacs can achieve speeds of more than 200 mph and stretch their flight to several miles before deploying their parachute and floating back to Earth.

In May 2017, British wing suit pilot Fraser Corsan set a world record for the fastest speed reached in a wing suit of 246.6 mph.

One of the earliest attempts at wing suit flying was made on Feb. 4, 1912 by a 33-year-old tailor, Franz Reichelt, who jumped from the Eiffel Tower to test his invention of a combination of parachute and wing, which was similar to modern wing suits.

He misled Tower guards by saying his experiment was going to be conducted with a dummy. He hesitated quite a long time before he jumped, according to observers, and died instantly when he hit the ground head first.

Sad.

Unfortunately for Reichelt, the first level of the Eiffel Tower -- from which he jumped -- is only 187 feet tall. "Safe" launch heights are more like 1,000 feet or higher.

A wing suit was first flown in the U.S. in 1930 by a 19-year-old American, Rex Finney. Early wing suits used materials such as canvas, wood, silk, steel and whalebone. They were not very reliable, although some pioneer "birdmen” claimed they glided for miles.

The modern wing suit was developed by Patrick de Gayardon of France in the mid-90s. In 1997, Bulgarian Sammy Popov designed and built a wing suit that had a larger wing between the legs and longer wings on the arms.

Popov's wing suit first flew in October 1998, but he never took it into commercial production.

Chuck Priest

In 1998, Chuck "Da Kine" Priest built a version that incorporated hard ribs inside the wing airfoils. Although these more rigid wings were better able to keep their shape in flight, it made the wing suit heavier and more difficult to fly.

Nevertheless, wing suit flying is becoming increasingly popular and even has its own sports body: the World Wingsuit League.

Matt Gerdes, wing suit tester at the Squirrel wing suit company, says wing suit fatalities are on the rise because becoming a wing suit pilot is becoming less personal, Many for-profit BASE jumping instructors are allowing students to skip steps and start testing out wing suits after fewer and fewer regular parachute jumps, Gerdes said.

Oooh, please sign me up for the wing suit skip-ahead, speed-learning course!

The fatality rate for all skydiving sports combined is approximately 1 death per 100,000 jumps. For wing suit flying, the death rate is approximately 1 death per 500 jumps.

Whoa...

A detailed study on wing suit deaths by the University of Colorado found that -- out of 180 studied fatalities -- 97% launched from cliffs and another 1% from buildings.

But some wing suit flyers have also recently begun starting their flights by jumping out of planes and helicopters.

You know: To make it less dangerous...