BMW partnered with German automaker Designworks and Peter Salzman, a professional skydiver and BASE jumper to test fly a chest-mounted twin jet power pack. After 3 years of testing in an indoor wind tunnel, Salzman dropped from a helicopter at 10,000 feet and reached 186mph on the inaugural flight—about 3X faster than a standard nonpowered wingsuit.
“One of them was a supporting motor—and it’s an idea I just couldn’t shake,” Salzmann noted. “I found the idea of being able to jump from my local mountain wearing the wingsuit and land in my garden fascinating.” Design engineers noted the power system offers about 5 minutes of jet thrust, which allowed Salzman to gain altitude during the flight. For details, please see the TheHypebeast.com and the DAILYNEWS via MSN.com.
Watch Salzman fly here.
by Tom Atwood
