History

Wings were first used by 19 year old American Rex G. Finney from Los Angeles, California in 1930 as an attempt to increase horizontal movement and maneuverability. These early wingsuits were made of materials such as canvas, wood, silk, steel, and even whale bone. They were not very reliable. Some "birdmen", notably Clem Sohn and Leo   Valentin claimed to have glided for miles. The wingsuit was showcased in the 1969 movie The Gypsy Moths starring Burt Lancaster and Gene Hackman. On 31 October 1997, French skydiver Patrick de Gayardon showed reporters a wingsuit with allegedly unparalleled safety and performance. De Gayardon died on 13 April 1998 while testing a new modification to his parachute container in Hawaii; his death is attributed to a rigging error that was part of the new modification rather than a flaw in the suit's design.

Wingsuit flying is the sport of flying the through the air wearing a special jumpsuit, called a wingsuit  , which adds surface area to the human body to enable a significant increase in lift . Modern wingsuits, first developed in the late 1990s, create the surface area with fabric between the legs and under the arms. Wingsuits are sometimes referred to as a birdman suit (after the makers of the first commercially available wingsuit), flying squirrel suit (due to their resemblance to the animal. Squirrel is now the name of a commercial wingsuit manufacturer), or bat suit (due to their vague resemblance to the animal or perhaps the superhero).

A wingsuit flight normally ends with a parachute opening. So a wingsuit can safely be flown from any point that provides sufficient altitude for flight and parachute deployment (normally a skydiving drop aircraft or BASE jump exit point). The wingsuit flier wears parachute equipment designed for skydiving or BASE jumping. The parachute flight is normal but for the extra step of the canopy flight pilot unzipping their arm wings to allow full arm mobility necessary for safe canopy flight