Landing Without a Parachute - Bird Man Suits

In July, we introduced you to a man who is getting ready to Sky Dive From Space.  That’s a rush, but why bother with a parachute at all?  Birdman Suits let you fly in the sky and you can buy one for just 900 Euros.  The goal of those in the Bird Man tribe is to find a way to land without any use of a parachute.  So far, they are pretty close, but you still need a small chute to slow down when you are close to the ground.

Here’s the story of the first attempt from Go Fast Sports:
Pioneer B.A.S.E. jumper Jeb Corliss and Go Fast!® - sponsored test pilot Luigi Cani, have paved the way for a world record landing attempt of a wing-suit—minus a parachute. Jeb and Luigi teamed up to gauge speeds and gather data to safely land Jeb’s wing-suit. Testing was critical, as no one has ever survived a landing attempt without a parachute. Jeb flew in free fall donning a parachute alongside Luigi, who was at the controls of the world’s smallest and fastest parachute—known as the ICARUS VX-39.  The two were able to gather data using GPS systems attached to Luigi that tracked exact forward speeds, exact fall rate and glide angles needed for a safe landing.

After two days of test piloting, Jeb Corliss said landing the wing-suit was possible as early as next year. “We found there is a definite and reasonable speed for a landing attempt sometime next summer. We’re now developing four different types of technologies to land safely—it’s very important to land with zero injuries,” said Corliss after analyzing data from the test flight.