BTM TALK –FLYING WITHOUT AN AIRCRAFT
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star man was an American called Clem Sohn, but even he died, aged 26. There were problems with limited understanding of aerodynamics and the ability of the human body, which is constructed differently to a bird. One failing was that wing men couldn’t release the suit in the air if things went wrong. This was solved by Sqn Ldr Harry Ward who had a suit made from silk and whale- bone and who lived to be 97. Incidentally, Harry’s first parachute jump was from a Vickers Vimy which would have been built at Brooklands. Things went quiet for wing suits thereafter until the 1990s when Frenchman Patrick De Gayardon designed the first modern, safe wing suit. Patrick pushed the boundaries which ultimately led to a fatal jump in 1998. Fraser first tried wing suits in 2001, is now on
Fraser Corsan (Gareth Tarr).
been broken three times at the Track during its active period, together with many class records. So it was wonderful to be able to welcome the world speed record holder for a wing suit to the Museum for a BTM Talk on 12th April. Fraser Corsan started by stating what we were all thinking; he must be a lunatic to pursue this hobby. It became clear over the next hour that this is a very sane and competent man who, having completed over 1,500 wing suit jumps, is taking a very well calculated risk when he exits the aircraft. Fraser had childhood ambitions to be a pilot but
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very bad colour blindness ruled out that possibility. A paper written whilst doing his aeronautical degree brought Fraser to the attention of a company called QinetiQ which provides techno- logical and scientific expertise to mainly the aircraft and military industries. Fraser’s first job for them was to write a safety case for the Challenger II tank and amongst subsequent tasks he assessed the Battle of Britain Flight and spent five years looking at safety for the Eurofighter. So when he then said that flying wing suits was all about risk assessment, maybe he didn’t seem so mad after all… Unlike Fraser the early wing suit flyers were a
bit more ‘gung-ho’. The first attempts happened in the 1930s and in a roughly 10-year period 76 wing men tried; one survived into later life. The
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rooklands is often associated with speed records, the outright land speed record having
his 16th and provides feedback on wing suit performance for one of the manufacturers. The suit is now a very complex bit of kit and Fraser’s record suit has 147 components. It has aerody- namically shaped leading edges (that cover the forward surfaces of the arms) and carbon fibre fins near the ankles for stability. The wing suit pilot needs an understanding of aerodynamics to fly efficiently and weight is critical – the suit hav- ing to be designed to the individual’s physical pro- file. One important piece of equipment is the AAD (Automatic Activation Device) that fires a charge that opens the parachute if the wing suit pilot falls through 750 feet AGL (Above Ground Level) at 75mph because the parachute has not been deployed. Introduced in 1991, AAD is believed to have saved 4,000 lives. Project Cirrus was the name of Fraser Corsan’s
record attempts and this was in aid of the military services charity SSAFA. The target was four records:
Demonstrating his wing suit (Gareth Tarr).
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