Flight Test

What if your homework was to design a new flight suit to help skydivers go farther and faster than ever before? And when you finished, your teacher put on that flight suit and jumped out of an airplane? 

That’s the assignment for engineering students at the University of Southampton in England. Their instructor, Angelo Grubisic, isn’t just an engineer. He’s also a skydiver. He hopes to use his students’ creation, called a wingsuit, to make a record-breaking jump. 

What if your homework was to make a new flight suit? It would help skydivers go farther and faster than ever before. And what if your teacher put on that flight suit and then  jumped out of an airplane? 

That’s the project for a group of engineering students. They go to the University of Southampton in England. Their teacher is Angelo Grubisic. He isn’t just an engineer. He’s also a skydiver. His students’ creation is called a wingsuit. He hopes to use it to make a record-breaking jump. 

Extreme athletes have been using wingsuits for decades. The fabric suits have a soft flap under each arm and another between the legs. 

When a skydiver jumps, the flaps inflate into stiff wings. Those create lift, or upward force, so the jumper coasts forward instead of falling straight down. “It allows you to transform a human into an aircraft,” says Grubisic.

Using a wingsuit is risky. If a skydiver isn’t moving fast enough, the suit can stall. That’s when air flowing over the wings doesn’t create enough lift, and the person falls. Most divers wear backup parachutes, but they can still be injured or killed if something goes wrong.

Grubisic and his students want to make the wingsuit safer by making it more aerodynamic. The more smoothly the suit slices through the air, the faster it will go—and the less likely it is to stall.  

Extreme athletes have been using wingsuits for years. The fabric suits have a soft flap under each arm. The suits have another flap between the legs. 

The flaps blow up into stiff wings when a skydiver jumps. The wings create lift. This upward force allows the jumper to glide forward. Otherwise, the person would fall straight down. “It allows you to transform a human into an aircraft,” says Grubisic.

Using a wingsuit is risky. The suit can stall if a skydiver isn’t moving fast enough. That’s when air flowing over the wings doesn’t create enough lift. The person falls. Most divers wear backup parachutes. But they can still be injured or killed if something goes wrong.

Grubisic and his students want to make the wingsuit safer. They plan to make it more aerodynamic. The suit will slice more smoothly through the air. That will make it faster and less likely to stall. 

To make a more aerodynamic wingsuit, Grubisic’s students are studying airplane wing designs. Copying these shapes helps them improve the suit. The students are also changing things like the shape of the helmet and the position of the vents that inflate the wings. 

To test each new idea, the students are developing a prototype, or model, wingsuit. Grubisic puts it on, then steps into a harness that holds him up in a wind tunnel. Giant fans blow air all around him, mimicking what he’ll experience in flight. Sensors in the tunnel measure how air flows around Grubisic’s body. Then the students use that data to adjust the suit.

When he’s sure the suit is safe, Grubisic will jump from a plane 13.5 kilometers (8.5 miles) up. If he succeeds, it will be the highest-ever wingsuit jump. 

Grubisic hopes the suit will be ready to fly in a year or two. But the dive itself isn’t his most important goal. “What I really enjoy is inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers,” he says.

Grubisic’s students are studying airplane wing designs. Copying these shapes will help them make a more aerodynamic wingsuit. The students can change things like the shape of the helmet. They can also move the holes that blow up the wings. 

The students are creating a prototype wingsuit. They’ll use this model to test each new idea. Grubisic puts it on during a test. Then he enters a wind tunnel. Giant fans blow air all around him. This mimics what he’ll feel in flight. Sensors in the tunnel measure how air flows around Grubisic’s body. The students use that data to adjust the suit.

Grubisic will jump from a plane once he’s sure the suit is safe. He’ll be 13.5 kilometers (8.5 miles) up. It will be the highest-ever wingsuit jump. 

Grubisic hopes the suit will be ready to fly in a year or two. But the dive itself isn’t his most important goal. “What I really enjoy is inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers,” he says.