They seem to have a lot of velocity forward, almost like they are flying. I cant understand how they seem to gain so much momentum forward without anything to propel them while they are falling/flying.
In my head they should just fall straight down but slower than they would without the wingsuits. Bc even if you jump forward off a cliff no way you gain that much momentum. And they don’t fall so slowly that even a little bit of forward velocity is enough to get as far as they do.
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The wingsuits impart the ability to glide, albeit it’s a steep downward glide. With enough speed gained from gliding steeper downward, the pilot can pull up and briefly fly nearly level before resuming the steep downward glide.
Think of a fighter jet with short wings. It needs to fly at a high speed for the wings to generate enough lift to fly at all. If a fighter jet were to glide, it would be a steep downward glide pulling up at the end for a landing.
This is how the space shuttle flew also. It basically fell out of the sky, and near the end of the flight its nose was pointed nearly straight down in a supersonic dive, and then as it reached the landing zone it would pull up to allow its high velocity to let it fly level long enough to land.
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