Quantum Physicist + 3D Printing = Wingsuit World Records: How We Did It 

Even if they end up banning the extensions...pretty cool to say "Yeah I'm the reason they have that rule."

I'm just a fan of engineering channels with dry/wry, even-keeled delivery vs sensational clickbait of the fascination du jour. Keep up the great work!

Always pleasure seeing you doing crazy collaboration stuff with interesting people!

Thank you for introducing Alexey! What an inspiring guy.. Awesome video as usual!

Being a wingsuiter myself since 2012, I found this interesting. I had looked into extension for my suits a few years back and had decided against them on the grounds that to get significant improvements you would need to make them fairly big and forces would have been "too much" to handle and safety would definitely be impacted... Fun to see that you can get some improvements with such a small (relatively) winglet. Do you think it is because of better control of tip vortices? Would a winglet with a swept-up end be even better a minimizing vortices?

omg the weather.... I'm so jealous

At 4:58 I love that "Time Bomb" by Iration is playing as he's talking about a time-activated parachute device 🤣

I'm pretty sure the new rules will at the very least heavily restrict the size and weight of extensions, if not prohibit their use entirely. I'm personally hoping for the first option, as they make for a very interesting competition, but the safety aspect has to be looked at very critically. Creating a situation where competitors are pushed to use larger and larger extensions, that will both make it harder to open the chute and also become harder and harder on the pilots would be less than ideal, so you at least need size and weight limits.

"If you've been enjoying this video, you may be interested in this video's puppy". Hi puppy!

Oh man, I knew I recognized Eloy and Elsinore. So many good memories, and what a fun project. Blue skies, friends!

How does this video only have 34k views with a puppy in it? All jokes aside this is brilliant and innovative. I wish you great success.

Sort of like when they came out with bigger tennis rackets, and larger golf club heads. My own experience was with hang-gliders that had carbon fiber wing spars. First the TRX-140, then I got a TRX-160 and that mo fo would float. Bad thing about carbon fiber is there is no indication that it is broke until it folds on you.

Legendary video man , very impressive

Wingsuits are pretty fun, but as low aspect ratio wings supported by sinew they are limited, and safety is bloody important. I always wished a spar supported wing could be deployed so as to be able to land it (and do loops and barrel rolls!). The smaller canopies are only 60 sq ft or so (smallest I've heard of was 46, typical is 120 or so), and the higher the performance, the higher the wing loading you can land. Add tail stability and eddy flaps and you might be able to do away with line supported canopies completely.

I hope the ruling allows innovation. Great work all the way around.

i was picturing something a lot longer. triple that. hey im here to learn.

really good video and work. I pondered for a while why people had not done more, but the in flight stability challenge explains that. I was thinking why no one has wings/winglets on the helmet. But centre of gravity? Also, in the chest area, this is a space that could be used for some form of wing or lifting body. The current arm design, and I guess this is partially physical limits, leads to a swept wing. Ideally for lift at lower speed, a straighter wing might be advantageous. Wingsuit flying is amazing. Looking forward to progress people make. Thank you for the time taken to put the content up!

Such an interesting idea. I've dreamed of flying in a wingsuit 😩 it's definitely something on my bucket list

The Cessna Caravan is not a converted turbo-prop. It's design and certification are as a turbo-prop.

Very cool!

Forget the regulations

That looks like a good wee pup! and the rest of the video was very good too...

Very fascinating. Amazing people

Really cool upload. thanks :-)

Ha! Nice pup. I have a 4 month old female red heeler named Goose. Best dogs ever. My fourth. We don't bob heeler tails in Canada so whenever I see a heeler with a bobbed tail, I know it came from the USA. Enjoy your new copilot!

So you add wingtips, maybe later winglets, then make them longer, how about a spar to stiffen the wings,.. at some point you are strapping yourself to a paraglider or even actual mini-glider. So yeah, I can see the point of regulations drawing a line somewhere.

I saw my house in this video! Lol. I always see those people floating down from the sky here. It seems like a pretty neat sport, but not for me! Lol. Also those hundreds of cops driving down the 15 freeway was going to a location where a cop passed, from a shooting. I saw about 40 cops go down Mission Trail too. And it was on the news. Also, how much did the covers over the wheel hub caps affect the MPG in your MPG tests?

PUPPY!!!!!

What auto-pilot board are you using?

Would it work to have funnel-like long airfoil arm extensions that are inflated by air collected by intakes along the shoulders? Like, structures sorta like windsocks, but aimed slightly outwards, sorta following the arm lines, so that the airflow hits along a leading edge to make them work like wings, and with some internal strings or stitches or whatever to keep and airfoil shape when inflated?

Pretty sure the C208B's at Elsinore are running 900hp Texas Turbine Conversions

I would just like to say ... My Amazon Echo went absolutely nuts while listening to this video . . . . . :P

Impressive what such small changes can do. Hopefully the new regulations won't hinder that innovation!

Very interesting 👍🏻

May I ask which autopilot board you used? Thanks.

Another fascinating aerodynamics topic and study. As far as FAI is concerned, does a wing suit need to be flexible, or are rigid variants allowed? Would be interesting to construct a rigid scale model of the pose at 1:21 for wind tunnel, or inflight tests. Determining best L/D, or minimum sink rate probably was not possible before you began collecting data from with flight recorder. Noticed at 9:13, in the duration run, it appears the wing suit stalled as neared the bottom floor of the duration window, cutting off 1-2 seconds of flight time. Wondering if a leading edge slate made of fabric would help lower the stall speed, or allow a bit increased angle of attack. Probably only need ~foot inboard to test as wing has washout, and being inboard would reduce any roll tendencies. Aerodynamics related to the helmet would be another interesting area to study. Are cone heads allowed? If a more pointy top works for Starships, it may work for wing suit pilots too.

I looked to all this stuff as some friends of mine were at the competition but mostly because I'm designing my own wingsuits with extentions since 2015 in the BASE enviroment. I have to say that the first thing that comes to my mind was that with the normal way of pitching that kind of extention are causing too much problems. There have been way too much safety canopy deployment because of them, and IMO they should not have been allowed during competition at first. Also saying that if there is too much trouble you have the AAD is weird, the AAD is supposed to be there for problems you did not expect, not for problems you expect... The new regulation is banishing extentions, it's done, and I think it's normal for safety reasons. That said I would have loved to have a new category like "prototypes" to have people continue to experiment, but it needs an other deployment system to make it safer (I'm using one). I think extentions are a good way to increase suits performances, my latest homemade wingsuit has performances at least similar any manufacturer's wingsuit on the market (in Glide and Starts) which is mainly due IMO to the extentions.

Well done! Embrace human flight. -Blue Skies

this is your wingsuit progress, rest of humanity? fine, I'll step in.

What are the moverio glasses used for?

Brilliant

👍💪✌ Very interesting, cheers!

Pretty cool ! Question : Aside from these guys flying with backpack jet powered fixed wings, did someone try to build some actual backpack folding wings ? Like, pretty much like how the Tomcat F-14 fighters goes from sub to supersonic, same kind of layout, but between more extreme positions, like between near straight, glider-like flight position, to fully folded, dragonfly/flagged position ? Would face many technical challeges of course but it looks like the natural follow up to wing suits, that are inherently limited by the shape of human body, right ?

The helmet looks like an area that causes a lot drag. I'm not familiar with how these with suits work, but wouldn't working on eliminating that drag help performance? Like how down bobsled racers have aero designed helmets?

As a fixed winged pilot for 50 years, I've been following the aero improvements of the suits. What's next, winglets? No, seriously....., VG's maybe?

Hi, I'm a machine learnings student at BYU and I am trying to get into the wingsuit community. Does anyone have any recommendations who I can contact or groups to get into? Thanks!

You guys remember like oh 5 years + ago some of the Swiss guys were working on something called the Glorietta hand launch PC system? it was this PC that sat under your right hand and by letting to it ejected away and started deployment of the main. Sorry i can't seem to find a video.....but i recall it being tested and found effective but never put into practice....

Nice that you (and Alexa) concluded that sweep doesn't help in these flight regimes. - Cessna type Swept tails (ie 152/172/182) are merely for "fashion" giving the stylistic "signature" look of the tailfin - looks faster, while the elevators and wings are straight - a Pilatus Porter works "as well" - in the far subsonic regime. lol... (if anything a swept wing has a lower aspect ratio - more likely a negative effect at low Reynolds numbers - on the other hand - it is all an experiment, thanks for telling the story. Competition rules tends to ruin sports (I prefer scientific advancement without limit) - playing with more YvesRossy-like wings is a better fit for skydiving than BASE (a multi-piece folding wing would be huge... (new sports could emerge.)

yea, hard questions...if they allow 'extensions', what will be allowed, what will be the limit, what will be a 'wingsuit', and when will it become a 'strap-on glider'? It's hard to innovate, and run up against 'ethics', or 'rules' , or "what is the sport?"

What's the glide ratio on a wing suit? I can't imagine it's very high. My Para-glider was around 8/1.

6:37 classic csl moment :)

Surprised not more people are adapting the wingtip pouch

What altitudes are the records from and down to? I have flights well above his records, so I am assuming that he’s not recording from 15k to 3.5k. The FAI rules must be something like a timer from 12k to 7k or something?

You should make a wingsuit company

Cool video. I bet these get banned though or width limited at best.

Thanks!

Next project.. Canards on his helmet :)

The Kasperwing hang gliders and ultralights have employed wingtip rudder/stabilizers successfully. I expect your wing extensions will sadly be outlawed as are many racing bicycle developments, typical behavior in competitive sports and a detriment to performance improvements.

Try L/o\_| shaped winglet like modern passenger airplane winglets

I have to wonder if that was a funeral procession for a member of law enforcement ...?

Just awesome, but I'm curious about what was blurred out? New flight controller design?

Fascinating video, thank you. Also really enjoyed your truss braced wing mothership video - the hours of effort that went into it were obvious - fantastic job. But ... and I really hate to say it ... I was really disappointed with Brilliant ... I bought it for myself for my birthday last year, and I've been really underwhelmed. 😐

turbine converted Cessna? I've never heard of a non-turboprop Cessna caravan before.

IMHO The wing tip should emulate endoskeletal bird feathers rather than exoskeletal aircraft. You want to reduce wing loading, and you don’t care so much about the infusion. I recommend you construct a wingtip with real bird feathers or artificial equivalents. It should flex like a bird wing, rather than be stiff. Think of it this way: you want to move a lot of air a little bit, rather than a little of air a lot.

well, F1 bans most exciting innovations i'd guess that's what will happen here, too

Competition and records in a technical sport like this seem silly if they're not about pushing technology. Safety rules - yes. Elegance / weight rules - maybe. Style points!

Check out the latest from DARPA: news.usni.org/2023/02/01/darpa-awards-contracts-for-long-range-liberty-lifter-flying-boat-design?mc_cid=3a77176069&mc_eid=da78f12f8d

My uni prof worked on the Icarus project

I loved the RU-vid video with the song "All I Need Is The Air That I Breathe" which is a memorial to all the people who died in wingsuits. Are there any statistics on the number of people who died with a "Red Bull" helmet on their head?

Data!!!😅

Since the max speed with the wingsuit open is known but at the same time the wingsuit suffers from stall at high angles of attack Will we ever see multi element foil wingsuits? You might say that its absurd and that liwer speed high angle of attack efficiency is irrelevent but isnt this the only way in the DIRECTION of wingsuit landing *without parachute*??

Paris lake👌🏻

You can build a suit using the Feather configuration that Burt Rutan designed for space ship one and two. Now you will be floating down instead of falling! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AqhQIOr299w.html The optimum angle of the wings was 15 degrees. Good luck!

How about really trying to push the envelope? A bird-wing-like/scissor folding mechanism strapped to the back with some high AR C-fiber wings spanning about 3m? If it's double birdlike articulated, maybe even 5 m? Ahh, if only we had a grant from Elon.

Banning wingsuit performance innovations would be a BAD idea.

The innovations are awesome! However, the "The FAI has passed new regulations..." . Please, don't let this turn into a "Lawyers Championship" like Formula 1 racing is.

Innovate!

the wings are too small -- make them 3x longer and disposable / biodegradable / jetosinable

Definitely lacks narration comfort! Very difficult to listen to your monotone, emotionless feel and robotic speech. Maybe awareness of punctuation in narration would help. You don't need to say a full paragraph in one breath! Pace the thoughts, breathe and don't rush to say it all in one sentence. Or hire someone else to re-write your material and do the voice over from a third person perspective since you won't be the one describing everything. The topic material is very interesting though!

Pretty soon these wingsuits will be the same as a glider, so I'm against it!

Your narration of your videos is annoying! You better hire a proper voice over. Your material is very interesting, but your reading from a page as if there are no punctuations is too harsh to listen to!

Epic