Wingsuit, which is commonly referred to by the general public as a "bat suit" or "batman suit," is one of the advanced branches of skydiving and one of humanity's most groundbreaking inventions. Essentially, it gives humans the ability to fly using their body, similar to a real bird.
If you’ve ever dreamed of flying and soaring through the skies like superheroes, know that you are not alone! The dream of flight has captivated human minds since prehistoric times. Even with the advent of airplanes and easier access to air travel, this historic question still lingers with us.
This sport has, in a way, fulfilled humanity's long-standing dream of flying like birds. All civilizations, upon their inception, created myths, legends, gods, and goddesses about flight. In fact, dreams about flight are a common thread among human experiences. There is an inherent desire in all of us to soar through the skies. What is a Wingsuit?
When we look at various wingsuits, regardless of their size or design, there is one key feature common to all of them. All wingsuits have two flying wings on the arms and one between the legs. The wings of the wingsuit, due to their airfoil-like shape (like airplane wings), generate lift in the airflow. A wingsuit can float like an airplane in the sky and change direction by adjusting the position of its wings.
Wingsuits are made from a special type of lightweight, soft nylon fabric with very high density. The design and stitching of the wingsuit are such that it can be easily worn like a garment and securely fastened to the body. The wingsuit’s arm design is like the airfoil of airplane wings, helping with flight and forward motion.
The forward motion of a modern wingsuit has a glide ratio of about 2.5:1, meaning that for every 2.5 meters the wingsuit moves forward, it will descend 1 meter. Jumping from an airplane or other high platforms involves specific techniques, and the athlete must follow all safety precautions. The time a wingsuit flyer can stay in the air is longer than freefall. Essentially, the person flies like a bird, and at the end, a parachute is deployed, allowing the individual to land slowly.
Seeing a person in a wingsuit soaring like a bird from the side of a mountain may seem like pure madness to many, but there is something magical about this incredible sport. Watching the ground rush by beneath you with a steep incline can be exhilarating. If you fly fast enough, you can climb higher into the sky and soar. Wingsuit flying will give you the true sense of flight.
With wingsuits, you can fly incredibly fast across the sky, and you must jump from an airplane or a high cliff to reach the proper altitude for flying. The forward speed and flight of the wingsuit are so fast that a safe landing cannot be achieved without the use of a parachute.
On the other hand, with freefall parachutes and paragliders, you can slow down your descent and make a much softer landing. Wingsuits give skydivers and base jumpers the ability to fly in the sky like a bird, spread their arms, and glide through the air. For centuries, pioneers in aviation tried to attach artificial wings to their arms and backs to achieve this goal. Wingsuits, or "bat suits," are the result of human efforts to fly like a bird. As long as you are at the proper altitude and haven't deployed your parachute, you can perform acrobatics and aerial maneuvers in the sky using your wingsuit.
There are various designs of wingsuits on the market, but they generally follow a common principle. Wingsuits are made from very strong, durable fibers, with certain parts made of hard, sturdy material, and the human body forms the main structure. Essentially, this suit transforms your entire body into a wing, meaning the suit must maximize horizontal surface area to optimize the airfoil’s performance. In standard designs, wingsuits achieve this by placing wing surfaces between the legs and under the arms.
The opposing airflow inflates these surfaces through specially designed air intakes, which ensures that the airfoils remain stable and rigid during flight. This means that flyers do not need to rely solely on physical strength to maintain the shape of the airfoils. To ensure that flyers can easily deploy their parachutes at the end of the flight, the design of the suit allows access to safety features.
How does a wingsuit allow the person wearing it to truly fly?
To understand more about the physics of wingsuits, their design, and how decades of experience and experimentation have led to wingsuit flyers mastering the skies, you need to know some basics about the principles of flight physics.
The first thing to keep in mind is that air, like liquids, is a fluid. Try moving your palm through a tub of water or sticking your hand out of a moving car. The resistance you feel on your hand is similar to the motion of fluids (air or water) opposing your hand's movement.
Flight involves the interaction of four opposing forces. Gravity and weight pull the flying object downward. However, lift occurs when the downward movement of an object encounters the resistance of the air.
If you have a smooth surface or airfoil (similar to an airplane wing), movement through the fluid not only reduces the gravitational pull on the object but also creates lift.
When a skydiver exits an airplane, they immediately experience the force of gravity. If this same individual wears a wingsuit, the airfoil of the wingsuit generates lift. Although this airfoil is not large enough to generate enough lift to counterbalance the person’s weight entirely, it does reduce the speed of descent, which is why wingsuit flyers must deploy a parachute for landing.
The small wings of the wingsuit cannot generate enough lift to significantly reduce the descent rate for a safe landing. To ascend in the sky, a wingsuit flyer must pay attention to their glide ratio (the relationship between lift, drag, and weight, which determines how far a flying object can travel horizontally from a specific height). When the force of gravity pulls the flyer down, lift allows them to enter the air horizontally.
When a wingsuit flyer jumps from an airplane and starts falling, the first step is to open their arms and legs to fully extend the wings. Then, they straighten their spine, push their shoulders forward, and straighten their legs. Since the entire body acts as the airfoil, the flyer can maneuver by moving different parts of their body in the air.
To cover a longer distance, the flyer must rotate their shoulders forward, tuck their chin to their neck, and position the wingsuit in a nose-down orientation. They must keep the wings open, but not fully extended. The more lift there is, the lower the descent rate becomes, and the flyer needs to sacrifice altitude to convert it into speed for greater horizontal distance.
To achieve the longest possible flight time, the flyer should raise their head and look forward. They should also gather their hips, extend their wings, and push them downward against the wind. By doing this, the flyer maximizes their surface area, generating more lift and reducing both descent speed and forward motion.
When it’s time to turn, the flyer simply rotates their legs, hips, and shoulders to change the shape of the airfoil. Any part of the wingsuit can contribute to the turn. The key here is making small adjustments because larger movements can cause uncontrollable spins. It’s similar to swimming underwater and moving your body to change direction, except every small movement in a wingsuit leads to significant changes in the direction of flight.
The first skydive from an airplane occurred only 9 years after the Wright brothers’ first successful flight. The early skydivers were the true pioneers, gaining knowledge of freefall aerodynamics with each jump. At that time, they couldn’t control the direction of their freefall, a technique that is now known as "tracking" in modern skydiving. They would simply fall until they deployed their parachutes.
In the 1930s and 1940s, skydiving testers experimented with various wing designs, from wood to fabric and even metal structures, to improve their tracking capabilities. While these rudimentary wings gave them varying degrees of control, they often interfered with proper exits from the plane or the deployment of their parachutes, leading to accidents.
In response to high casualty rates, the United States Parachute Association (USPA) banned the use of wings in skydiving. In the 1980s, German pilot Christoph Arndt enhanced his skydiving suit by adding wing surfaces to it, making advancements in wingsuit technology. While this did not significantly increase tracking speed, it did slow the descent rate and provided more stability. As a result, in 1987, the USPA lifted its restrictions on wingsuits for freefall.
In the mid-1990s, French skydiver Patrick de Gayardon worked on this concept further, adding wing surfaces between the legs and under the arms. Gayardon tragically passed away during a test flight, but his three-wing design became the foundation of modern wingsuit designs.
The first commercial wingsuits were released in the late 1990s, and the sport has since grown significantly. Wingsuit flying is a limitless sport, and participants include experienced skydivers and skilled base jumpers.
The price of wingsuits ranges between $1,100 and $2,000, depending on the manufacturer, design, and model.
If you have at least 200 freefall jumps and have met all the prerequisites for wingsuit training, the process is straightforward. Your training will take between two and five days. Wingsuit training, including instructor lessons, wingsuit rental, and practice jumps, will cost between $500 and $900. After completing the training, you will be able to comfortably fly with beginner wingsuits. As your skills and experience grow, you’ll be able to fly with larger and more advanced wingsuits.
With the official recognition of wingsuits by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), two official competitions were held in 2015 for Wingsuit Performance Flying and Wingsuit Acrobatics, providing participants with a global platform to showcase their abilities.
This type of competition measures three key performance parameters: the best lift, the least drag, and the best glide ratio, combining them into one result. All measurements are taken using a GPS device at a specific altitude (2000m to 3000m AGL). The competition consists of three skydiving jumps using identical equipment, with each jump dedicated to performing a specific task.
For the timing task, the longer the wingsuit flyer stays at that specific altitude, the better. For the distance task, the greater the distance covered at that altitude, the better the score. For the speed task, the highest average horizontal speed achieved at that altitude is calculated. The better you perform these tasks in the shortest time within the competition window, the better your score.
These competitions negate any physical advantages of the flyer’s body and focus on finding the best wingsuit pilot. Espen Fadnes, a Norwegian wingsuit flyer, became the first world champion in the 2015 FAI World Wingsuit Performance Flying competition.
In these competitions, a wingsuit team participates in an aerial display and tries to impress the judges with their best performance. The competition consists of two flyers in a team along with one videographer and flying camera. It includes both mandatory maneuvers and free-form routines.
Teams must impress the judges and other wingsuit pilots with their creativity and flight skills. Not only must teams score points based on their performance, but the videographer's performance is also evaluated.
Flight style is a crucial factor in these types of wingsuit competitions, determining how well the team flies at its best. The flight style is judged based on body positioning, smoothness of the flight, controlled formations, and forward flight speed.
