The Skyflyers
Ever since mankind looked into the sky and watched the birds at play, the dream of flight has driven dreamers, engineers, scientists, artists and realists alike.
The early renaissance designs of Leonardo Da Vinci, were followed by successful experiments with hot air balloons by the Montgolfier brothers brothers in the 1800's, which in turn gave birth to the first heavier-than-air flight by the Wright brothers in 1903.
If anything, two world wars did nothing to slow down the adoption of flying.
With airplanes widely adopted by all sides in WWI, and thee rapid technological advances between the wars, it was inevitable that the modified and improved airplanes used at the outset of WWII would finally give way to the newer and faster "jet" engines.
When the WWII ended there was a surplus of pilots and planes, and several commercial airlines began their operations in the post war years starting the revolution that would lead to cheap package holidays in Majorca.
It was an age of quick technological evolution, as designs and techniques developed for war were recycled for peace - leading to rapid and fast development of larger and airplanes along with the increased competition.
By the late 1950's or early 1960's the "Aerial Age" had ended - and the "Age of Aviation" had begun.
Huge commercial corporations built the infrastructure of flight we take for granted today - and convinced millions of people that flying really was "as safe as taking the bus" - the world began to shrink and suddenly everyone could be a part of "the jet set".
Yet, even now in the modern "Charter Age" - when vast airliners carrying hundreds of people stream across the globe in a matter of hours - and flying really is as simple as taking a bus into the city, some men and women still dream of flying unassisted through the skies.
Skydiving and parachuting are one step forward into that dream, and ever since skydivers have been jumping out of airplanes they have been looking for ways to prolong the skydiving experience, to spend longer in the air, to forestall that moment when they come back to earth again.
The problem is physics - if you drop anything out of an airplane, it will fall and accelerate until it reaches terminal velocity - it can't go any faster. The only things between the skydiver and physics are (a) the shape of the body and (b) a parachute.
The development of skydiving as a sport has enabled an astonishing degree of bodily control on the trajectory before the point that the parachute is even opened.
This control allows experienced skydivers to speed up, slow down and, to a certain extent , to "fly" towards a designated point to meet up with other skydivers.
That this approach is successful can be seen from that fact that skilled skydivers can work in large teams - enabling such record breaking feats as creating a formation of 672 skydivers over Thailand in 2004.
But freefall is still freefall, and skydivers have been recently been experimenting with ways to fly further for longer - so they have developed the "wingsuit" - a specially adapted freefall jumpsuit with wings of material between the arms and the legs.
By the 1990's experiments with the early wingsuits by the French skydiver Patrick de Gayardon had inspired a generation of skydivers to take this one step further - and create and fly new designs of wingsuits engineered to take the skydiver further and faster than before.
Skyflying had been born and a now a whole new generation could now follow the age old dream of flight.
Wingsuits work in the way that any other wing works - by generating lift. The material between the legs and the folds of the arms works very similar to the folds of flesh on a flying squirrel and thus slowing the rate of descent - allowing the skyflyer to freefall for longer than ever before.
It doesn't matter whether you fly a kite, a glider, a 747 or a wingsuit - the scientific principle is the same - the aerodynamic properties of an airfoil forces air to move faster over the top part of the wing - and that generates "lift".
The faster the forward speed of an object, the faster the air rushing over the top of the wing, and the greater the amount of "lift".
Using a wingsuit creates a situation for the Skyflyer that has a "high glide ratio" - allowing more time in the air - and more time for exploration.
This exploration has paid off - Skyflyers have learned to exploit all the physics they can get - and then some more.
The result is that instead of falling from the sky like a stone - a Skyflyer can glide like a swallow , engage in "flocking behaviour" like a bird, do aerobatics like a plane, or simply cruise along talking to fellow Skyflyers.
This is a not a sport for the casual practitioner - but for experienced skydivers. If you wish to become a Skyflyer you will need somewhere around 200-500 jumps before even strapping on a wingsuit, and even then instruction is recommended.
Skyflying is a new sport, but already there experiments with rockets attached to the boots of jumpsuits - accelerating the Skyflyer and allowing level flight for a limited period. As technology advances we can be sure that Skyflying will become even more advanced, with new types of wing designs, new materials and new techniques.
I love this slogan from a t-shirt from the Bird-man site - it sums up everything I like about this new sport.
The world is made a better place by those who refuse to believe they can't fly.
Are you a Skyflyer?
If so please contact the author to be interviewed for "Extreme Tales"Tags: extreme sports extreme tales skydiving free fall base jumping wingsuits skyflying