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Modern Wingsuit Flyers - Who jumped First??

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Patrick had one of the first designs for sure. Bird-man didn't get their start until a few months after Patricks death. I'm not at home now to quote the article from Bird-man. Robert and Jari took that dream and made it a reality for many people.

I'm not sure if Loic's mono wing didn't have a head start on Bird-mans. I heard the design isn't entirely his and that the concept was from a paraglider pilot who had the first one. Details are sketchy and unconfirmable.

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1998 was the first year of modern wingsuit production. Jari and Robi first put their S.U.I.T. (before it was called the Classic) prototypes together. A couple guys made their own suits in Hawaii, after seeing Patrick's, but they never produced their design. Loic built his first Crossbow that year.

Christopher Aarns had a design that he played with in the eighties, I believe. Before that, you have to head back to the era of the original birdmen.
"¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯"

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Jari and Robi first put their S.U.I.T. (before it was called the Classic) prototypes together.



Acronym? What for?

No clue. It's just what it says on the older ones (the ones with the sort of bat-looking logo)
"¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯"

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Jari and Robi first put their S.U.I.T. (before it was called the Classic) prototypes together.



Acronym? What for?

No clue. It's just what it says on the older ones (the ones with the sort of bat-looking logo)



S.U.i.T. = suit. Even I can't remember what was the story behind those dots. This was on the very beginning though :)Robi
Robert Pecnik
[email protected]
www.phoenix-fly.com

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Dude, reading your posts I always knew we had similar minds, and once I saw you making up acronym definitions, that just topped the cake (is that a real expression?). I do that all the time. B|

My favorite is to make acronyms out of someone's name. It's almost as nerdy (but not nearly as difficult) as Lisa Simpson's anagrams - "rearranging the letters of a person's name to form a description of that person". Incidentally, an anagram for Waylon Smithers is "wants him sorely".

Soar Up In Twos
www.WingsuitPhotos.com

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>A couple guys made their own suits in Hawaii, after seeing Patrick's, but they never produced their design.

They produced a few copies and impovements on Patricks suits but Chuck never went public with them. Yep.. thats the same Chuck that makes Da'Kine Rag's freefly suits so he has some knowledge on jumpsuit sewing.
Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

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Christopher Aarns had a design that he played with in the eighties, I believe. Before that, you have to head back to the era of the original birdmen.



1993 according to the Skydiving magazine I scanned these pictures from
Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

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Before that, you have to head back to the era of the original birdmen.



Not quite true; between the barnstorming days of Clem Sohn, Harry Ward and Leo Valentin, their was a Gypsy Moths style resurgence in the 60s by the likes of Bill Cole, Tommy Boyd, Don Molitor, Lyle Cameron Sr and C.H. Laurin
Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

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Before that, you have to head back to the era of the original birdmen.



Not quite true; between the barnstorming days of Clem Sohn, Harry Ward and Leo Valentin, their was a Gypsy Moths style resurgence in the 60s by the likes of Bill Cole, Tommy Boyd, Don Molitor, Lyle Cameron Sr and C.H. Laurin

I considered those to be part of the first birdman era, which ran from the 30s to the 60s (edit: which is probably why one of the pics you posted reads "Last of the Batmen" ;)). I don't think there was a huge gap between the original barnstormers and the ones portrayed on film. Well, not a 30 year gap, like there was after "Gypsy Moths". And good call on Aarns' suit. I went back and looked at the first draft of the "Invasion of the Skyflyers" article, which mentioned Aarns, and had it down as "early nineties".
"¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯"

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My favorite is to make acronyms out of someone's name. It's almost as nerdy (but not nearly as difficult) as Lisa Simpson's anagrams - "rearranging the letters of a person's name to form a description of that person".



"Here... play with this ball."

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Incidentally, an anagram for Waylon Smithers is "wants him sorely".



Nice. That almost seems intentional.
"¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯"

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I remember when Jari came to WFFC in 1999 representing the Wings container. Max Dereta and Jari were both flying wingsuits at the time. Russell Thornton from Australia and Annie Trach from Florida began flying wingsuits in 1999. Russell bought Skyflyer #1 and Annie bought Skyflyer #7 off the production line when that model was released.

In 2000 at WFFC, Jari, Max, Russell, Annie, JC Colclasure, Chuck Priest, and Brian Germain did the first wingsuit record way of seven flyers. Since then, flying with the flock has truly transformed and developed into some incredible skydives.

As for me, Russell & Annie put me out on my first wingsuit jump over Sebastian at the turn of the new Millenium 2001, and it's absolutely my favorite! I had the honor, along with Rob Tonneyson, of leading flock dives to the AirZone at WFFC 2002. I think the largest flock dive that week had 14 flyers.

Many thanks to the great pioneers of wingsuit flight.

Look forward to flying with you all at DeLand, WFFC & Summerfest!

Blue Skies,
Olivia

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About the wingsuit seven way record in 2000.

There were 3 different wingsuit designs on that dive.

Chuck Priest from Da'Kine Rags has a suit of his own.

Sammy Popov from Las Vegas had a suit of his own.

Then Jari had the BirdMan suits.

Chuck & Sammy did an excellant job making their suits, but of course BirdMan is the way to go.

Also, Sammy Popov from Las Vegas was the 7th flyer, not Max Dereta.

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Cool. Keep the info flowing.

See attached photo. Suit built from scratch in one go with approx 10 hours work. No templates / rebuilds / etc. Idea from a SMALL photo of Patrick de Gayardon in a magazine. Test jumped out of a plane the next day in Australia. First jump off a cliff (Kjerag LP7 in Norway) two days later on 19th July 1998.

Purpose of this suit: I needed manouvreability & descent rate control due to the floaty / acrobatic BASE jumper I was filming (DW). This included vertical descent in both horizontal and vertical positions, and horizontal speed. I also needed to accelerate away from the wall as quickly as possible as the walls became underhung (I'm not the best tracker in the world & don't have the "ideal" physique). I also needed something that would give me greater freefall time off those big walls in central Norway - I "cracked 30 secs" off one. 30 secs - ha - how things have improved since then.

Its great to see the work of Robi, Yuri, Loic, etc today.

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In the early 80's Don Carpenter of the 1975 World Champion Rainbow Flyers had something he called a squirrel suit. This was during the RW wing wars. As far as I know it was commercially available. It had slots for the leg straps and a continuous curved single surface wing from the wrist to the ankle. This was still with ripcord rigs, but definately after the 1960's bat men. I'll ask him about it tomorrow. We jumping into his sons high school graduation party.

Of course we all had Brand X and Silly Suits with wrist to waist wings. Still have mine.

As an aside he also had another suit I think he called a shobi suit. It had rigid paddles in the forearm wrist area and in the shins. The idea was you turned the wrist paddles parallel to the relative wind to go faster and perpendicular to the relative wind to go slower. Also stuck out the shin paddles or bent the out of the air at the knee; kind of a rigid bootie.
I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

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As an aside he also had another suit I think he called a shobi suit. It had rigid paddles in the forearm wrist area and in the shins. The idea was you turned the wrist paddles parallel to the relative wind to go faster and perpendicular to the relative wind to go slower. Also stuck out the shin paddles or bent the out of the air at the knee; kind of a rigid bootie.



>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

That reminds me of a batch of RW suits that Pat Works sold circa 1980. Pat's suits had huge plastic paddles sewn into the forearms and lower legs.
Shobi Knutsen also sewed a variety of large suits in that same period.
That was the last gasp in the "wing wars."
By 1983 the Canadian RW Team was wiping up medals in their snug-fitting cotton jump suits and freefall fashion changed forever.

It would be amusing to write an alternative history/science fiction in which balloon suits remained in fashion, mophing into squirrel suits, morphing into Matter suits, etc. ..... hm?

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