Monday, December 23, 2024

Ueli Gegenschatz: Extreme wingsuit flying

January 16, 2011 by  
Filed under VidStyle

Wingsuit jumping is the leading edge of extreme sports, an exhilarating feat of almost unbelievable daring, where skydivers soar through canyons at over 100MPH. Ueli Gegenschatz talks about how (and why) he does it, and shows jaw-dropping film.

ABOUT TED

TED is a small Non Profit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment and Design.

ABOUT Ueli Gegenschatz

“Ueli Gegenschatz was known for his expert paragliding, skydiving and BASE jumping and his utterly jawdropping flight in a wingsuit, a high-tech flying-squirrel-inspired getup that let him soar as close as humanly possible to our shared dream of flight. His “addiction to speed” continues to inspire.

A member of the Swiss national paragliding team for four years, he co-founded the Red Bull acro team in 1995. His Base jumping stunts are the stuff of YouTube legend: the Eiffel Tower; Petronas Towers in KL; the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau peaks all in one day.”

The VIDEO

UPDATE
Sadly, on 11 November 2009, during a jump from the Sunrise Tower in Zurich, Switzerland, a gust of wind hit Ueli and he lost control of his jump. He hit the ground and was seriously injured. He died on 13 November, 2009.

RELATED
1. Wikipedia

Comments are closed.