Wingsuit Pilot Crashes

Salty said:
We aren’t talking about a better wing, we’re talking about adding a wing where there was no wing before and that is NEVER going to make you faster. No matter how good the airfoil is.
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Faster can be relative- if we're talking faster across the ground, then adding the wing probably does increase speed. But if we're just measuring vertical velocity then it would slow you down to some extent- probably.
 
sky diver rigs are pretty draggy, his suit is very smooth and lacking in external objects. That is why he goes so fast, not the wings. The wings just let him go far with that speed.
 
Salty said:
That's not going faster than terminal velocity, that's reducing drag to increase the terminal velocity. And a wing isn't what's doing it, it's reducing drag by streamlining, the wing isn't exposed to gain the speed.
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Isn’t the terminal velocity for a falling object determined primarily by how streamlined it is?

If so the normal quoted terminal velocity for a human, in clothing and flailing around, could be different than someone in a very smooth suit holding the right shape.
 
This is correct. Terminal velocity varies based on weight and drag. My friends and I routinely did 180 in freefall by flying on our heads and feet. We could reach 300 (as measured by an altimeter that calculated vertical speed) with a little effort, though it wasn't much fun except for bragging rights.
 
MonkeyClaw said:
This is correct. Terminal velocity varies based on weight and drag. My friends and I routinely did 180 in freefall by flying on our heads and feet. We could reach 300 (as measured by an altimeter that calculated vertical speed) with a little effort, though it wasn't much fun except for bragging rights.
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Jumped with a guy who lost a arm, both of us were about the same weight, wearing the same type of clothing it was a pain to catch him in free fall if both of us were belly flying.
 
Matthew said:
It’s because heavier things fall faster.
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This is not true. Air resistance determines how fast an object falls relative to another of an equal, less, or greater mass.
 
Icarus is a rather fatalistic name for the mission. Daedalus would have been better.
 
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