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These ingenious inventions have given people wings to soar through the air

WORDS SCOTT DUTFIELD

A lack of wings and inability to fly hasn’t stopped people from finding ways of soaring through the sky. The bravest have fought the forces of gravity by using a ‘wingsuit’ to glide down from planes and jump from cliffs.

Commercially used since the late 1990s, a wingsuit is a full-body suit incorporating aerodynamic fabrics between the arms and legs. Following an airborne jump or BASE jump – Building, Antennae, Span (bridge) and Earth (typically a cliff top) – gliders extend their arms and legs outwards, stretching the adjoining material.

Transforming skydivers into human flying squirrels, the wingsuit exploits a force called lift to control their descent through the air to glide horizontally rather than fall vertically. A wingsuit does this by increasing the surface area of the body, along with increasing the air resistance pushing up against the wings. For optimal gliding and lift generation, the wingsuit helps transform the shape of the body into what’s called an ‘airfoil’. Much like the wings and propellers of an aircraft, the curved shape of an airfoil creates an environment where the air crossing over the top of the airfoil experiences lower pressure than the air moving beneath it. This difference in pressure generates enough lift for the wingsuit to glide around three metres horizontally for every metre it falls vertically. To steer, the wingsuit wearer only needs to change the shape or angle of the wingsuit to change direction. Towards the end of the jump, gliders deploy a parachute strapped to their back to gently lower them to the ground safely.