First-person base jumping in Switzerland. Stick with it, as the horizontal movement across the rock face using the gliding bodysuit will blow your mind.
posted by lazaruslong on Oct 18, 2009 - 76 comments

Stories that Fly is a citizen media project that features a growing collection of digital stories about general aviation. The stories are contributed by student journalists, aviators, and interested community members and cover regional airports, events, and people in the Ohio aviation community.
posted by netbros on Mar 23, 2009 - 3 comments

Unplanned Freefall? Some Survival Tips [more inside]
posted by lalochezia on Jun 1, 2008 - 32 comments

The highest recorded skydive was performed in 1960 by Joe Kittinger from 102,800 feet. That record may not stand any longer. After twenty years of planning and attempts, almost twenty million dollars, and a two hour ascent on May 26th, Michel Fournier, wearing only space suit and parachute, will step out of the gondola of a 650 foot helium balloon at 130,000 feet.... The Great Leap. [more inside]
posted by Kronos_to_Earth on May 24, 2008 - 29 comments

523 years after his original drawing, DaVinci's parachute design is proven to actually work. There was an earlier attempt, but apparently the wooden frame specified by DaVinci likely would have seriously maimed the jumper. Perhaps not entirely coincidentally, the 2008 jump was made from a helicopter - another one of DaVinci's concepts.
posted by webhund on Apr 28, 2008 - 15 comments

Cat + Airplane + Parachute [video]
posted by blue_beetle on Mar 15, 2008 - 59 comments

It's a bird, it's a plane! , no it's the Special Forces using strap-on stealth wings to zoom silently into battle. We've all fantasized about jet packs, but being dropped from a plane with wings on your back is a silent way to travel great distances before opening a parachute for landing, just like daredevil Felix Baumgartner, who soared across the English Channel. Who wants to go first?
posted by twsf on Jun 6, 2006 - 22 comments

"Skydiver in record Channel flight" is the claim made by an Austrian skydiving across the channel aided by small strap-on wings. Evidently he needed a 1 in 4 glide angle to make it, but a simple understanding of flight mechanics would suggest that the distance he could fly is proportional to the amount of strap-on wing area. At what point does skydiving become gliding?
posted by marvin on Jul 31, 2003 - 12 comments

anyone been to safer america to stock up on tin foil hats or mustard gas spit shields? is it strange to capitalize on paranoia like this, or to open flag shops after sept. 11th? joking aside, any reports from the store from new yawkers?
posted by asparagus_berlin on Feb 20, 2003 - 13 comments

Pilot parachutes plane to safety. Never before had a certified aircraft used a parachute to land. But that all changed Thursday afternoon when a pilot in distress used Cirrus' parachute system to successfully bring his disabled airplane to earth. Plane malfunctioning? Release the rip cord! More inside.
posted by hockeyman on Oct 5, 2002 - 12 comments

Homemade parachute, eh? That sounds dangerous to me.
posted by sylloge on May 27, 2000 - 2 comments