ManBird 0 #1 April 28, 2003 Supposedly, at least according to Gypsy Moths, some of the original Birdmen that went in did so because they believed they could land their contraptions. Though I know better, I sometimes feel what they may have felt. In those last 500 feet before deployment, I often get a second wind and try to extend out that last little bit, like I can keep it from ending."¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TomAiello 25 #2 April 28, 2003 You might want to check out the book that Airtec published. Let me dig around and see if I can find that thing...hmmm, anyone else have it? If you crosspost this to the History and Trivia forum, I'll bet Skypuppy can come up with a complete list of the original Bird-men who landed their contraptions. I know I've seen him post a couple photos (including the infamous Eiffel Tower "landing"). Or, you could just go to Moscow, and look up Rasputin's Godson. I hear he landed his Skyflyer a while back...-- Tom Aiello [email protected] SnakeRiverBASE.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vesatoro 0 #3 April 30, 2003 Here http://users.utu.fi/vejuto/skyflying.html you can find some information about the birdmen of the past. The information is from various sources, including the Leo Valentin book published by Airtec. Vesa "Fear is the path to the Dark side" (Master Yoda) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skypuppy 1 #4 May 1, 2003 At one point I was thinking about writing an article on the evolution of the wingsuit - or batwings - from the 30's to today - however I was having some difficulties coming up with all the names and incidents from our history... I have read this quote before... "Unfortunately, between 1930 and 1961, 72 of the 75 original Birdmen died while trying to break the barriers of the human flight." and I seem to have some troubles with these numbers... From what I read there were way more than 3 or even 10 birdmen from before 1961 that lived full lives, and I have a suspicion from what I;ve read that there were way more than 75 birdmen during that time in total... Just look at all the guys who wore them in the Ripcord series and the Gypsy Moths movie (ok, I know this came out after '61, but many of the guys had experience or were trained by guys with experience in that time frame), and Roy 'Red' Grant, who used them to make flights across the international border from the USA into Canada across the Niagara gorge. Even Canadian parachutist Bill Cole used batwings as late as the early 70's on some exhibition jumps. Yes, the early birdmen had a high mortality rate, but so did all early parachutists, especially considering that they were not fun jumping, but performing for the crowds, therefore likely to be jumping in marginal weather conditions, opening low to put on a better performance for the audience (and to decrease their chances of being blown out of the showfield while descending) - remember there was no real governing body and no minimum opening altitudes for these guys... I'd wager most of them opened around 1000' or lower... Many of them only used one chute as well... The batwings for these guys was really only a gimmick - keep in mind that many of them such as Clem Sohn couldn't fall stable even without batwings - they would simply do slow rolls or loops while watching their altimeters... It wasn't until the 50's that Valentin started to publicize and teach methods of stability (although individual jumpers may have discovered them before, they kept them largely to themselves). Most fatalities among the early birdmen then were probably simply parachute malfunctions, many of which might have happened without the wings on too... Sure, there were cases such as Valentins where he smashed one of his wings exiting the plane and never recovered, or Clem Sohn where I believe the parachute caught on part of the wing assembly and streamered - but these were not the rule... Some also found they could not move their arms to open the parachute while flying their wings. I don't think too many actually made a decision to try to land the wings, it's more likely they just had problems deploying their parachutes at the usual 1000 - 500 foot opening altitude, and ran out of time... The wings were simply a gimmick to draw bigger crowds... That being said there was at least one man who designed a wingsuit-like contraption (parachute/overcoat) he felt he could land safely. After trying it out on a test jump from 10-15 feet to see if it would inflate, Franz Reichelt decided to do a live test instead of a dummy drop from the Eiffel Tower in February 1912, only to fall the 190' or so from the first deck to his death.... This was in response to a cash prize being offered in France at the time for someone who could come up with a fall-arresting device... If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
