[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.

[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.

[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

[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. :-)

[Dumpster Baby]

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

[dalereed]

I want to be there and greet him with my shovel. Personally , I can't understand wanting to jump out of a perfectly good airplane.

[Does so]

1) One way to get suicide bombers into a football stadium!

==8°0

2) If Primates were meant to fly, we'd have wings...

Oh, wait...there IS our flying cousin—a Colubo—from Asia:

[Eye of Unk]

I think its possible if he was to incorporate some sort of landing ski or skid plate and just come in for a belly landing. Either that or use some small JATOs or rockets used in ejection seats to slow his final descent. Another thought would be there can be a memory material that pops out like Batman upon final. I still think our military has a better design and has been using it for years. Just as a thought and not necessarily whats our military is using I am posting a pic I grabbed with Google.

[Thrownatbirth]

These guys had a few problems with the wing concept back in the '60's.

[Joe Boucher]

Laugh if you may, but, some of our best military fighters have learned how to use these type of flying suits to drop behind the enemy by many miles.
Drop them out of a plane and they fly to their target area sometimes many miles.

[bill1952]

NYT story? I heartily endorse the requirement that every NYT reporter must make such a jump...

[BuffaloJack]

I sure hope Youtube carries the video of this. Ya think it will be in the face-plant category?