Re:Electrified wingsuit from BMW reaches 186MPH on first flight
by Retric on Sunday November 15, 2020 @09:04PM
(#25107149)
First a belly down skydiver falls at about 120 MPH. Face down with streamlining they can do up to about 300MPH.
So someone starting with a deep dive in a wingsuit can level out and get very fast horizontal movement. There are a few videos of people doing this and reaching almost level flight though their slowing down. It’s maintaining speed that requires thrust, but speed is enough for level flight.
Also, while you could effectively balance on a jet engine to hover, that amount of thrust would also allow you to do not just level horizontal flight but rapidly gain altitude, making it kind of a meaningless from a minimum speed to requirements for minimum thrust perspective.
So someone starting with a deep dive in a wingsuit can level out and get very fast horizontal movement. There are a few videos of people doing this and reaching almost level flight though their slowing down. It’s maintaining speed that requires thrust, but speed is enough for level flight.
Also, while you could effectively balance on a jet engine to hover, that amount of thrust would also allow you to do not just level horizontal flight but rapidly gain altitude, making it kind of a meaningless from a minimum speed to requirements for minimum thrust perspective.