Fly with wingsuit – One Man Jet

Wingsuit – One Man Jet

(Flying Technology)

By: Muhammad Umar

Human always dreamt to fly like birds, this dream came into reality in forms of jets and planes but now wingsuits seem more fun.

Wingsuit was first used by a 19 years Rex G Finney from LA, America and he aimed to increase horizontal movement and manoeuvrability during a parachute jump. early wingsuits used materials such as canvas, wood, silk, steel, and whalebone etc.

Earlier wingsuits were also known as death suits, but upgradation, research, innovation and modern technology made it safer.

As we need a driving test and licence before drive, one needs flight course and have to prove with a signed logbook that he/she has completed a minimum of 200 skydives within the last 18 months and have earnt USPA B-license.

A wingsuiter can fly at minimum average vertical speed of 25 Mph and horizontal speed of 220 Mph which is really well controlled compared to skydivers.

BMW released wingsuit in Nov 2020 and this is electric motorised wingsuit with advance options. This fully electric wingsuit has 20 HP with 5-inch diameter twin Carbon fibre impellers spinning at 25000 rpm, weighing only 12 kgs, powered by 50V BMW Lithium-Ion battery. A test flight has been done by Peter Salzmann after he tested his inventions in a horizontal wind tunnel in Stockholm, Sweden and then another test flight over Austrian Alpines at the speed of 115 Mph. BMW has been working on the idea since 2017 and project generated two prototype engine systems, one large and one small.it seems that future can take us one man jets. So far the landing technique is same as skydivers and one needs a parachute but we hope soon it will be smooth take-off and landing without any parachutes.