BMW Made The World’s First Electrified Wingsuit. It Goes 186 MPH And Is Ugly As Sin.
Robb Report - BMW believed it could fly and now it’s proved it. The German marque just successfully sent air sports pioneer Peter Salzmann soaring through the sky at speeds of up to 186 mph in a newly developed electric wingsuit.
The innovative concept was a joint effort between BMW, Designworks and Salzmann. The professional skydiver and BASE jumper said the idea arose while he was thinking of ways to improve performance in the air.
“One of them was a supporting motor—and it’s an idea I just couldn’t shake,” Salzmann told BMW. “I found the idea of being able to jump from my local mountain wearing the wingsuit and land in my garden fascinating.”
After three years of intensive research and countless test flights in BMW’s horizontal wind tunnel, Salzmann and the wingsuit completed the maiden flight over the picturesque mountains of Austria last week. The 33-year-old was dropped by helicopter at just shy of 10,000 feet alongside two other fliers sporting conventional wingsuits. BMW says the electric wingsuit enabled Salzmann to accelerate faster than his mates at a peak speed of 186 mph. (Normal wingsuit operators typically reach horizontal speeds around 62 mph.)
The e-wingsuit is built upon BMW i EV technology and powered by a chest-mounted rig. It offers 15 kW of grunt that’s split between two 7.5 kW carbon impellers. The impellers spin at a speed of 25,000 rpm and produce thrust for up to five minutes. The aim of the electric wingsuit is to increase performance and eventually allow for longer distances to be covered.
While Salzmann’s first flight was a resounding success, it appears he’s not resting on his laurels. According to BMW, the daredevil wants to fly between the skyscrapers of South Korea next.
“I will have to train more,” the Austrian adds. “We will optimize the technique and look ahead boldly.”
Cool I guess?
No offense to this daredevil guy Salzmann but you look like a huge squid in this thing man.
It looks like BMW really blew their wad on the R&D part of this project and had pennies left when it came to the design.
Like the got some of those cheap Walgreens pool floats and stitched them together with the hoverboard fans and said arite bro go break a leg.
Also, not to sound like a hater, I'm no scientist but it's not like this guy started from a dead stop on the ground and jetted off at 186 mph. He jumped out a plane. I vaguely remembered, and confirmed thanks to google, that gravity = 9.81 m s-2 meaning thanks to gravity the higher you are the more you accelerate as you fall. I think. So is 186 even that fast?
When I heard electrified wingsuit two visualizations came into my mind-
1-
and 2-
And yes I realize those are jet packs we're talking about and this is a "wingsuit" but still.
Guess we'll just have to wait til the American's unveil their version and blow away these pretender, flying squirrel looking things BMW made.
p.s.- if you ever want to be instantly depressed about your current financial situation peruse through an issue of The Robb Report. This is the kind of shit they feature, and advertise. Nothing but yachts, $500,000 watches, million-dollar Bugatti's, and private island real estate ads. Must be nice.