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medusa

The compleat Wing suit List

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johnmatrix

Any pics?



You can guess which it is. It's Lurch. 35 sqft blowup mattress basically.
Carpe Diem, Even if it kills me -- "Dead Poet's Society"

"Are you getting into trouble over there?" --- "Nothing that I'm going to admit to!"
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The A-II? I was flying it that way to keep it -down- with that canopy. If I had opened it out all the way with the leading edge -not- partially collapsed to keep that thing on a leash, it would have outflown the canopy and I would have had to fly it steeply head-down to get the CG right for a power level like that anyway.

The flight regime on display in that image is a controlled half-stall which is how you use a suit that big at the bottom edge of its power curve. I had to fly it dirty to keep it on a leash. To my knowledge there is no suit that can stay with it when it is opened all the way. It occupies a largely-unexplored range between normal wingsuits and canopies.
It may be useless for competition so far, but this line of research has resulted in a suit with more sheer annihilating air traction than anything else I ever flew. There are suits that fly faster, suits that fly further, and suits that fly longer. But there are no suits that do what this one does.
I do not care if I can win competitions with this thing. Learning to fly it is reward enough.
Special thanks to Tony for being willing to build me something -that- far off the map from a bunch of drawings. Suit worked, old man, it worked. The workmanship in that thing is as world-class as it gets, I want to fly nothing else.
I owe you one.
-B
Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

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BryanCampau

Wow! I'd love to see that thing in the sky! That's crazy.



Not anymore, it's not.

The Albatross III exists.

The Albatross II is no longer the biggest suit in my fleet.
Not even close.

Use your imagination.

-B
Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

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lurch

What's the latest on that guy Antoine anyway? Any.of these things work, put any mileage on em? I'd love to know how some of his creations flew. He -is- still alive?


Apparently he's put the wingsuit on the backburner because the tracking suits are working a lot better. Said that the wingsuit has great exit performance but he couldn't get it to fly the way he wants it to.
Do you want to have an ideagasm?

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lurch

***Wow! I'd love to see that thing in the sky! That's crazy.



Not anymore, it's not.

The Albatross III exists.

The Albatross II is no longer the biggest suit in my fleet.
Not even close.

Use your imagination.

Jake had it with him at Orange this past weekend. No photos were taken per his request, but "crazy" just isn't an adequate description of what I saw :o

When are you planning on jumping it?

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Next couple of weeks. We spent the better part of two years hammering this one out on paper. Jake absolutely nailed it in one shot. The fit is perfect. The grippers drop into my hands just right. The toes go exactly as tight as I want them to, when I want them to. The wingspan matches what we mapped out, so perfectly that at full span, I get exactly the tension in my thumbs holding the grippers just by fingertips, that I wanted.

Best estimate is 38-40 square feet. The last one was a solid 35. This is... more. A lot more. Feels totally flyable. The last one was. This was entirely designed around a skillset I built up over the last 4 years flying suits almost that big. The suit looks insane, but it's the apex of a very long and patient growth curve.

Should fly like a slightly baggy Albatross II, with improved range of motion and a much bigger wallop when flared.
-B
Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

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What is the goal of these very large surface area suits?

My thinking is that you would be using a fairly thick airfoil and going for minimum decent rate.

Are you able to fly the suit cleanly with other wingsuiters or is it having to be collapsed?

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5 foot 10". If you're wondering about the 35 square feet, it's simple. We folded a Petra 69 in half and laid the Albatross II over it. The Petra disappeared. The A-II was more than half the size of a 69 even without being pulled totally flat.
-B
Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

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