The sport of wingsuit flying has soared in the last decade, with daredevils pushing the boundaries of how we define human flight. Now Austrian Peter Salzmann has soared right over those boundaries in his electrified wingsuit.
Salzmann, a seasoned skydiver, teamed up with BMWi to design a chest-mounted propulsion system for his wingsuit. Lithium batteries power two carbon fiber rotors that provide up to five minutes of thrust, and Salzmann can activate the system in the air to increase his speed and push him to higher altitudes. Salzmann, who’s also a BASE jumper (which means he’s been known to parachute off tall things like cliffs and bridges), controls the power by bending two fingers on his left hand.
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“I still get a big smile when I think about the first time when I switched it on,” Salzmann told CNET. “I really felt, ‘Whoa, it’s really working!'”
Watch the video above to see his record-setting flight over an Austrian mountain range.
