The Physics of BASE Jumping
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History of BASE Jumping:
Who's bright idea was this anyways?
Nine years after the Wright brothers dawn of flight, skydiving pioneers were pushing the limits of aerodynamics. The first jumps were simple free falls, and it wasn't until the 1930's "wings" were being tested. From the 1930s to the 1960s the fatality rate for winged flyers was so high though, the United States Parachute Association banned "wings" while skydiving. Then a German skydiver named Christoph Aarns created a wing suit using webbed wing surfaces in the 1980's, with this advancement and others the UAPA lifted the ban. Continuing the webbed wing idea, a skydiver named Patrick Gayardon in the 1990's decided to put a wing surface under each arm and between his legs. This was the model for modern wing suit designs, and around 1998 wing suits became commercially available.
Nine years after the Wright brothers dawn of flight, skydiving pioneers were pushing the limits of aerodynamics. The first jumps were simple free falls, and it wasn't until the 1930's "wings" were being tested. From the 1930s to the 1960s the fatality rate for winged flyers was so high though, the United States Parachute Association banned "wings" while skydiving. Then a German skydiver named Christoph Aarns created a wing suit using webbed wing surfaces in the 1980's, with this advancement and others the UAPA lifted the ban. Continuing the webbed wing idea, a skydiver named Patrick Gayardon in the 1990's decided to put a wing surface under each arm and between his legs. This was the model for modern wing suit designs, and around 1998 wing suits became commercially available.
