What’s the last thing you saw soaring through the air?

Was it an airplane?

Perhaps it was a hot air balloon?

Could have been a bird?

What about a wingsuit?

When I was first introduced to this sport I was completely unconvinced.

As if flying through the air was humanly possible sans motorized mechanism?

I began my own personal investigation with the click of a mouse and a couple calls to my “base jumping entourage.”

The history is quite interesting as the first suit was introduced more than 75 years ago.

The same number of deaths occurred in the first 30 years. Not a surprise considering the original “birdman attire” was fabricated from canvas, silk and steel.

It wasn’t until the turn of the last century that the wingsuit was perfected. It took 2 veteran skydivers, Jari Kuosma of Finland and Robert Pecnik of Croatia, numerous months, and 1 death, to truly design a uniform of complete seamlessness. The attire is no more than a specialized jumpsuit, which shapes the human body into an airfoil, thus creating lift.

The idea of soaring through valleys at 100mph was still disbelieving, even to the most experienced skydivers and base jumpers. The incredulous criticism was maddening to Kuomo and Pecnik. Within a year these two gentlemen founded BIRDMAN INTERNATIONAL LTD (http://www.bird-man.com/;)

the first company ever to produce wingsuits for skydivers as well, the first company ever to start training skydivers to use their suits for flight and instructors to train them. Within another year, the BIRDMAN Instructor Course was created. Today this form of fleet rapidly expands, mostly in Europe. YouTube harnesses a variety of videos, with professional jumpers soaring through the sky, so close to the walls of a mountain, at times reachable to touch.

Exiting an aircraft in a wingsuit requires learned techniques that differ depending on the location and size of the aircraft door. Off a mountain requires the same method. Truly there are not really any restrictions as long as the point of descent provides sufficient altitude. Still, it is requested that any first time wingsuit jumper completes beforehand a minimum of 200 jumps. A trained instructor requires 500 hours.

The suits are designed to replicate that of a bird. In fact a group of wingsuit pilots that fly together are actually called a flock. Fabric is sewn between the legs and the arms. When the body is fully extended, the resemblance to a flying starfish is the best way to describe it. Parachutes are built into the suits. At a planned altitude, a flier must unzip the arm wings so that they can reach the control toggles and deploy the chute. This system is designed to land in the same fashion as a sky dive or BASE jump.

Now here’s the really cool part; a wingsuit flier measures personal performance, using a freefall computer. The computer indicates the amount of time they would be in flight, at what altitude they should deploy their parachute, entering into freefall. GPS receivers can also be used to record flight path of a wingsuit. All of this data can actually analysis the exact distance, flown during air travel.

So next time you look up to the sky and ponder if it’s a bird or a plane, take a second to see it soar a little closer…you might be surprised at what flies overhead?