Adrian's text on the history of windfly

History of wingfly

An early attempt at wingsuit flying was made on 4 February 1912 by a 33 year old tailor, Franz Reichelt, who jumped from the Eiffel Tower to test his invention of a combination of parachute and wing, which was similar to modern wingsuits. He hesitated quite a long time before he jumped, and hit the ground head first, opening a measurable hole, but an autopsy showed that he died of a heart attack before hitting the pavement.

These early wingsuits were made of materials such as canvas,wood,silk etc... In the mid-1990s, the modern wingsuit was developed by Patrick de Gayardon of France, adapted from the model used by John Carta. In 1997, the Bulgarian Sammy Popov designed and built a wingsuit which had a larger wing between the legs and longer wings on the arms. His prototype was developed at Boulder City, Nevada. Testing was conducted in a vertical wind tunnel in Las Vegas at Flyaway Las Vegas. Popov's wingsuit first flew in October 1998 over Jean, Nevada, but it never went into commercial production.

 Popov's design was great; it was able to slow the vertical speed to 30 km/h while gliding horizontally at speeds over 300 km/h. In 1998, Chuck Raggs built a version which incorporated hard ribs inside the wings. Although these more rigid wings, made the wingsuit heavier and more difficult to flys.

1.True or false.

  a)Franz Reichelt died because he crushed into the paviment.

  b) In 1998,Chuck Raggs built a version which offered an easier way to fly.

2.Open Questions.

 a)Who was the first person to test this flying sport?

 b)Which materials were used to make this especials clothes to fly?

 3.Synonyms.

-Mix(1p):

-Floor(1):

-Subtances (2):

-Model(3):