• The highest altitude jumped in a wing suit, the record stood at 37,400 ft, the aim was 42,000 ft.
• The fastest speed flown in a wing suit was 238mph, Fraser’s target was 250mph (400kph).
• With an existing record of nine minutes, 51 seconds, Fraser hoped to fly for at least 10 minutes
• He hoped to fly for at least 20 miles, beating the existing record of 19.1.
The records attempt would require two dives, as the fastest speed record would be contradictory to the other record targets and would take place in two locations; California and Canada. To record his feats Fraser carried three GPS units and three cameras. He would also need to carry oxygen; at 45,000 feet the time of useful consciousness (ie with ambient oxygen) is nine to 15 seconds, at 30,000 feet that increases to one to two minutes and at 20,000 feet at least half an hour. The speed record was attempted in California
in May 2017. Leaving the aircraft at a height of 35,508 feet (very high for a propeller driven plane) and an exit speed of over 260mph (a record) Fraser immediately went into a spin. This
he had anticipated and trained for, so after seven rotations he managed to get into normal flight mode. On his descent Fraser reached a speed of 246.6mph, breaking the world record, the fastest speed flown horizontally without power. This was also a record for the longest and highest UK and EU free-falls. The altitude and distance world records
required jumping from a balloon and this was planned to take place in Canada. In the 10 days allocated for this record attempt there was rain and low cloud meaning that the balloon could not take off. Fraser still hopes to attempt these records but requires a sponsor at present. Before the evening you might have thought it
would be difficult to fill over an hour talking about wing suit flying, but after a fascinating presentation Fraser was surrounded by many members of the audience, all keen to find out more and examine the wing suit. Lunatic? Certainly not. A full recording of the talk is available on
BTM.tv under the Members/Archive section of the Museum website (
www.brooklandsmuseum.com/ btm/archive/btmtv) and more details of Project Cirrus can be found on the website http://project-
cirrus.com/
Gareth Tarr
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