Flying Humans, Hoping to Land With No Chute

NY Times ^ | December 10, 2007 | MATT HIGGINS

[neverdem]

Jeb Corliss wants to fly — not the way the Wright brothers wanted to fly, but the way we do in our dreams. He wants to jump from a helicopter and land without using a parachute.

And his dream, strange as it sounds, is not unique. Around the globe, Mr. Corliss said, at least a half-dozen groups — in France, South Africa, New Zealand, Russia and the United States — have the same goal in mind. Although nobody is waving a flag, the quest has evoked the spirit of nations’ pursuits of Everest and the North and South Poles.

“All of this is technically possible,” said Jean Potvin, a physics professor at Saint Louis University and a skydiver who does parachute research for the Army. But he acknowledged a problem: “The thing I’m not sure of is your margins in terms of safety, or likelihood to crash.”

Loïc Jean-Albert of France, better known as Flying Dude in a popular YouTube video, put it more bluntly: “You might do it well one time and try another time and crash and die.”

The landing, as one might expect, poses the biggest challenge, and each group has a different approach. Most will speak in only the vaguest terms out of fear that someone will steal their plans.

Mr. Corliss will wear nothing more than a wing suit, an invention that, aeronautically speaking, is more flying squirrel than bird or plane.

He plans to land on a specially designed runway of his own design. It will borrow from the principles of Nordic ski jumping and will cost about $2 million, which explains why he is so much more vocal than the others about his quest.

Mr. Jean-Albert figures he could glide to a stop on a snowy mountainside...

[neverdem]

Axel Koester for The New York Times, left; Perry Trowbridge/AFP
Jeb Corliss, left, is dreaming of flying with just a wing suit, and maybe a prayer. Right, skydivers with wing suits flying over the Florida Keys before releasing their parachutes. Recent innovations could soon make it possible to land without relying on a parachute.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/10/sports/othersports/10flying.html?hp
Copy and paste that url for the regular webpage with a video.

James Bond-style strap-on jet pack flying wing to extend special forces' reach

[Huntress]

The guy on the left needs one of these:

[Nathan Zachary]

I’m betting it’s going to hurt- real bad.

[MaxMax]

Hold mah beer.

[FormerACLUmember]

What could possibly go wrong with this brilliant idea?

And I didn't know that there was competition to win the fabled Darwin Award.

[Dumpster Baby]

I thought they already did this stuff in the 1930's.

[Chani]

ROFL...i thought this was about the flying imams wanting to land without a chute!!! I was all for it!

[FormerACLUmember]

This is for wimps! I plan to sign up to sky dive from outer space, 60 miles up.

[Slings and Arrows]

Landing without a parachute is easy. The trick is doing it twice.

[Squeako]

Unless their suits can produce enough lift at very slow speeds, it's not going to happen. There are very good reasons why hang-gliders have lifting surfaces as large as they do.

Now, if they wanted to make rather complicated personal wings with slats and flaps, I'd be more convinced, but it's not going to be from a webbed suit like this.

In order to even experience wing-in-ground effect (provided these suits actually create useable lift) he'd have to be only a couple feet off the ground, which is too low for him to even put his feet down.

Besides, with "wings" this small, he'd really have to be cooking and he wouldn't want to even think about touching the ground at that speed.

[Republican_Beauty]

This thread is as funny as it is interesting. I just hope my husband who has sky dived in the past doesn’t read this and get any bright ideas LOL...Hey Mr.Beauty, if you are reading this...I think this is a bad idea! LOL

[Eternal_Bear]

newsreporter: Wow! Landing without a parachute! That was fantastic! Most amazing we have ever seen. Will you be doing that again?

jumpee: slowly shakes his head: I....just.....don't....think....I....want....to....do....that.....again

[Lancey Howard]

Cool!
This is exactly the kind of story the NY Times should concentrate on, and back away from helping the rats turn America into a Euro-style, secular-socialist welfare state.

[BigBobber]

You can see similar flying around the Alps:

http://www.biertijd.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=4262

[D-fendr]

“Flying Dude” on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmZyB_ghpa0

Pretty incredible low ‘flying’ in the clip. Very fast, very low. (Spoiler - he opens a chute to land.) But it looks nothing like possible to land in this glide suit.

Then there’s this flying dude:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkbJzoRg-KA

[MrEdd]

Now, if they wanted to make rather complicated personal wings with slats and flaps, I'd be more convinced, but it's not going to be from a webbed suit like this.

">

[JoeSixPack1]

[Riley]

Where’s Super Dave Osborne, now that we need him?

I once saw a helmet cam clip taken by a base jumper whose chute streamered. He’d jumped off of a dam. He bounced off of it a couple of times, then smacked into rocky dirt at the bottom. He broke multiple bones, but survived.
After hearing the sounds that came out of this guy, the notion that ‘in the air, altitude is life’ became even more firmly fixed in my brain.
I used to skydive. I shied away from base jumping at the time, and am glad I did. No low jumps, no low pulls.
And DEFINITELY no jumping without a chute. :-)

[Squeako]

I'm aware of this wing. But, you'll note that he also did not land without a parachute. He was able to achieve level flight for a bit (until his micro-jet turbines ran out of fuel), but he had to deploy a parachute to land and had to jump out of an airplane to begin his flight.

Plus, his wing was a simple foil, lacking any of the lift devices such as slats and flaps. It all boils down the getting the landing speed down to something reasonable, e.g. walking or running speed. So I really don't see how they're accomplishing anything aside from enjoying and extended-distance fall.

People are already doing what these fellas want to do. Here is someone in a foot-launched powered hang glider, taking off from a trot and landing on his feet.

[Dumpster Baby]

"As God is my witness....."