The聽team of talented Southampton students are on track to develop a British wingsuit to set altitude, distance, speed and time human flight world records.聽The interdisciplinary project, termed the 鈥樷��, is engineering an advanced wingsuit for ultra-high glide ratios.
The project is part of the fourth聽year Group Design Project for MEng Aeronautics and Astronautics students.聽The Icarus Team is targeting a 45,000ft high altitude wingsuit jump, covering 20-25 miles. This is some 15,000ft higher that most commercial jets fly and 16,000ft higher than Mt. Everest, beyond the thermosphere into the lower stratosphere.
The student鈥檚 lecturer of Astronautics, , is also an experienced wingsuit BASE jumper and will flight test the new suit from 15,000ft in March, with an aim to progress to 22, 37 then 45,000ft.
The jump poses significant technical and physiological challenges including very low atmospheric pressures (140mbar) with risks of decompression sickness and hypoxia, and flight speeds in excess of 280mph. He said:
鈥淭he Icarus Programme 聽is about providing students with the opportunity and leadership to achieve something remarkable in their time at Southampton, in a commitment to their education. Our students are more than capable.鈥�
The project has produced the world鈥檚 first ever 3D dynamic laser scanned聽models of a wingsuit with project supporter , and it has gone further in performing this under flight conditions within the University鈥檚 Mitchell Wind Tunnel.
The project appeared聽on the 聽(about 14 minutes into the programme)聽on Wednesday 24聽February and has just featured in Skydive Magazine in the UK.
You can follow the development on the 聽and on .
Dr. Grubisic honing his skills in Norway and Hawaii.