Engineering challenges of urban wingsuit

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SUMMARY

The engineering challenges of designing an urban wingsuit include addressing wing loading, ensuring safe descent from mid-large buildings, and integrating parachute technology for landing. Current wingsuit designs are optimized for performance, but landing without a parachute remains impractical due to high speeds upon descent. The discussion highlights the need for detailed project specifications to evaluate feasibility and safety standards, particularly military standards, in urban environments.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of aerodynamic principles, particularly wing loading
  • Familiarity with current wingsuit technology and performance metrics
  • Knowledge of parachute design and landing techniques
  • Awareness of safety standards in extreme sports, especially military standards
NEXT STEPS
  • Research advanced aerodynamic principles related to wingsuit design
  • Explore the latest innovations in parachute technology for urban applications
  • Study case studies of successful wingsuit landings and their engineering challenges
  • Investigate military standards for personal flight devices and their implications
USEFUL FOR

Aerospace engineers, extreme sports enthusiasts, safety regulators, and anyone involved in the design and development of personal flight technologies will benefit from this discussion.

whig4life
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What would be the engineering challenges of designing/constructing an urban wing-suit?

To clarify, I am talking about a wing-suit that can allow a user to jump off a house or of mid-large sized building in a city (or suburb) and glide down safely (lets use military standards as our bare minimum here -- it counts if they get to the ground rather quickly so long as they aren't getting severely injured).

For the attachments, imagine you are trying to turn one into the other...https://www.physicsforums.com/attachments/https://www.physicsforums.com/attachments/58704 becomes https://www.physicsforums.com/attachments/58705
 
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I loved Rocky the Flying Squirrel too, but I eventually grew up to realize that I couldn't be him.

By the bye, you do realize that you can't land in a wingsuit, right? You need a parachute.
 
Why is it not possible? The purpose is to mentally work out what the engineering challenges would be, not to build one on a message board.

Also, at low altitude you can land.
 
The issue is called "wing loading". The smaller the wings, the more lift per unit area they have to produce to keep you from crashing. The more lift needed per unit area, the faster you have to be moving to produce that lift. So that wingsuit might be able to level-off for a couple of seconds, but it will still be moving at probably 50 mph when it does. Too fast to land without killing the pilot in most landings.
 
Whig4life, Without the complete project details members are at a disadvantage and often begin to guess or speculate on the questioner's intentions. To obtain the maximum utility from a forum like Physics Forums it is useful to give as much information as possible.

Are you sure the proposed use of the "wing suit" project is possible? What analysis have you done? How can you know "at low altitude you can land"?

What specific "Military Standards" did you refer to?

Neither of the two links in your opening post functioned when I tried them. How can one "imagine turning one into another" with nothing?
 
Bobbywhy said:
Neither of the two links in your opening post functioned when I tried them. How can one "imagine turning one into another" with nothing?

Yeah, they both gave me blank grey pages as well.
 
whig4life said:
What would be the engineering challenges of designing/constructing an urban wing-suit?

To clarify, I am talking about a wing-suit that can allow a user to jump off a house or of mid-large sized building in a city (or suburb) and glide down safely (lets use military standards as our bare minimum here -- it counts if they get to the ground rather quickly so long as they aren't getting severely injured).

For the attachments, imagine you are trying to turn one into the other...https://www.physicsforums.com/attachments/https://www.physicsforums.com/attachments/58704 becomes https://www.physicsforums.com/attachments/58705

Wingsuits have come a long way in the last few years, but are pretty optimized now. And you land with an aerobatic parachute. Exactly what are you trying to do beyond the state of the art in wingsuits?
 
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mheslep said:
Dangerous, but it has been done, last year for the first time.

Well, that's okay if you want to lug around a couple of thousand cubic metres of cardboard boxes, but it seems to me that such a thing somewhat detracts from the freedom factor of just gliding off of a building. It would make more sense to carry an on-board air bag, but even that wouldn't be any better than a 'chute.
 

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