Man Can Fly

My grandparents witness the birth of man flying inside a machine but I have lived to see man fly.

I was having trouble relating to my son and daughters generation of lingo. You know, INSANE, SiCK and Freaking Awesome Dude.

But once I saw these video's of Man Flying I knew immediately this was beyond INSANE and SiCK this is Freaking Awesome Dude. Or as Austin Powers might say, Groovy Baby! And I would add Holy Sh@T Batman....man can fly!



Warning: Make sure you are not on medication while watching these men fly. I'm having a hard time believing what I'm seeing.

Get out your French book, pump down a fast pint of Red Bull and put in your Heavy Metal Ear Plugs to watch this video.



It’s a bird, it’s a plane … no, it’s just the latest high-altitude sports craze that has grabbed the attention of thrill-seekers worldwide. Forget hang-gliders, the latest sport to take off is wingsuit flying. As the name suggests, just don a special Batman-esque jumpsuit and away you go. The wingsuit flyer exits from a plane or from a base-jump exit point such as a cliff wearing the space-age suit and a parachute. The flier then manipulates the shape of their body to create drag and lift. While still in the early stages of development, powered wingsuits using small jet engines that are strapped to the feet are now also being developed — what next?!



Wingsuit flying is the sport of flying the human body through the air using a special jumpsuit, called a wingsuit, that shapes the human body into an airfoil which can create lift. The wingsuit creates the airfoil shape with fabric sewn between the legs and under the arms. It is also known by the public as a birdman suit or squirrel suit.

A wingsuit can be flown from any point that provides sufficient altitude to glide through the air, such as skydiving aircraft or BASE jumping exit points.

The wingsuit flier wears parachute equipment designed for skydiving or BASE jumping. The flier will deploy the parachute at a planned altitude and unzip the arm wings, if necessary, so he/she can reach up to the control toggles and fly to a normal parachute landing.



Wings were first used in the 1930s as an attempt to increase horizontal movement.

These early wingsuits were made of materials such as canvas, wood, silk, steel, and even whale bone. They were not very reliable. According to wingsuit lore, between 1930 and 1961, 72 of the 75 original birdmen died testing their wingsuits. Some of these so-called "birdmen," most notably Clem Sohn and Leo Valentin, claimed to have glided for miles and inspired dozens of imitators.

In the mid-1990s, French skydiver Patrick de Gayardon developed a wingsuit that had unparalleled safety and performance. Unfortunately, de Gayardon died on April 13, 1998 while testing a new modification to his parachute container in Hawaii; his death is attributed to a rigging error which was part of the new modification rather than a flaw in the suit's design. Despite his tragic end, de Gayardon planted the seeds for a new generation of birdmen.

New World Records

On July 24, 2008, Australian doctor Glenn Singleman jumped from 37,000 feet over central Australia setting a world record for highest wingsuit jump.

The largest wingsuit formation flown involved 71 jumpers (a "71 way") in a "Stealth Bomber" formation at Lake Elsinore, California, on 12 November 2008. The US record (satisfying USPA judging rules) is a 25 way diamond flown at Ottawa, Illinois, on 28 July 2009. A 25 way diamond was subsequently flown at Pepperell, Massachusetts on 15 August 2009.