The physics of wing suit skydiving
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Let's examine the science:
- Remember terminal velocity?
Can man Fly?
After Wilbur and Orville's airplane success, the modern parachute and skydiving came into its own. The first skydiver, although this is disputed, was Grant Morton who, in 1911, jumped from a Wright Model B airplane over Venice Beach, California using a folded silk parachute. He threw the canopy into the air and landed safely
A history:
- Wings were first used in the 1930s as an attempt to increase horizontal movement
- These early wingsuits were made of materials such as canvas, wood, silk, steel, and even whale bone... They were not very reliable.
- 72 of the 75 original birdmen died testing their wingsuits. Some of these so-called "birdmen," most notably Clem Sohn and Leo Valentin, claimed to have glided for miles and inspired dozens of imitators
- In the mid-1990s, French skydiver Patrick de Gayardon developed a wingsuit that had unparalleled safety and performance. Unfortunately, de Gayardon died on April 13, 1998 while testing a new modification to his parachute
- What are the physics of flight?
- what exactly does a wing suit do?
- How fast are wing suit divers going?
Concepts:
- Drag coefficient
- Glide ratio
- Bernoulli's principle
- Terminal velocity
- Drag Force
Equation:
2 m ag
V=√
p A Cd
So keeping this in mind, answer this:
- Its the point at which drag force equals gravitational force
- V = velocity
- m = mass
- ag = gravitational acceleration
- p = density of fluid
- A = surface Area
- Cd = drag coefficient
If I were to jump out of a plane facing "belly to earth" {A= .84m^2} and I weigh 79kg with a Cd ratio of 1.0, in air with a density of 1.2 kg/m^3, What is my terminal velocity?
V= 39.12m/s or 87 mph
wing suit gliding is taking advantage of the air around us to turn gravity against itself
air resistance is the key:
Drag Force
Drag Equation:
Fd = 1/2 Cd p
v^2 A
- Fd = Drag Force
- Cd = Drag coefficient
- p = density of fluid [air]
- v = velocity
- A = surface area
Take for instance, a man with a wing suit falling at 50 m/s, in air that's .004kg/m^3 thick, how much drag force is generated with a drag coefficient of 1, and a cross sectional area of .84 m^2?
In pounds it's 283.2 pounds of force. This is enough to lift any person in this room
...with air
- Burnuolli's principle: flight is achieved by generating air pressure underneath a wing. pushing the aircraft up into the sky
air resistance creates drag, which is what determines an object's terminal velocity. remember the more drag generated the slower the terminal velocity
Drag is directly determined by an object's surface area
Birds fly like that...
Physics aside, its still fun to watch...
Drag coefficient :
a dimensionless quantity that is used to quantify the drag or resistance of an object in a fluid environment such as air or water.
In other words; when an object moves, how much Resistance does it give off?
So how does it work?
- increases surface area
- redirects airflow down ward and backward
2 Fd
Cd =
- Turns downward momentum into forward momentum
p V^2 A
If I were to through a ball at someone at 40 m/s, in normal surface air [ p = 1.1644] and if the ball's surface area was .4m^2. It would generate 175.125 Newtons of force. What is the drag coefficient?
- p = air density
- V = velocity
- A = surface area
- Fd = drag force
A: .47...did you see it?
- the excess drag creates lift using bernoulli's principle
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Glide ratio:
a measurement of distance that shows the distance covered vertically versus the distance covered horizontally
If i were to jump off of Mt. Whitney in Nevada, which stands at 4,421 meters tall, how far would I go in a wing suit at full speed?
A: 11,042 m or 6.82 miles
In other words...
Wing suits have an average glide ratio of about 2.5
y
x
Glide r. =