Wind Tunnel Testing of a Novel Wingsuit Design

A wingsuit is a special suit that is worn to allow the user to fly after jumping off of a high cliff. The wingsuit creates an airfoil shape by adding wings of material between the arms and the sides as well as a tail consisting of material between the legs. The wingsuit allows for the creation of lift and thus human flying. A new and novel wingsuit design is proposed based on the design of a delta wing aircraft. This new wingsuit has material leading from the side of the head and connecting to the top of the arms, extending the area of the forward wing. Using a mannequin in a wind tunnel, the aerodynamic performance of the new wingsuit will be measured and compared to that of the current wingsuit design. The results show that the redesigned wingsuit had a lower lift-to-drag ratio in most testing scenarios. The decrease in lift-to-drag ratio was due to the combination of an increased lift and a higher increased drag. © 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.