Wingsuits were invented as a way of falling without plunging to certain death while skydiving. The concept borrows from the anatomy of the flying squirrel, which can glide between trees for up to 90 meters. Now, it is commonly used to undertake daring flights, and recently a former Navy SEAL demonstrated this when he broke the world record for the longest horizontal distance traveled using a wingsuit.
Andy Stumpf, former SEAL, decided to pull the wingsuit stunt in order to raise money for the Navy SEAL Foundation Survivor Support Program. The foundation offers "a variety of vital services to children, spouses, and parents of fallen warriors in their time of need and into the future," according to its website. Stumpf staged the dangerous dive in partnership with Skullcandy, the popular headphone and accessory manufacturer. Details of the fundraising campaign can be accessed through this link.
Stumpf jumped off the plane at an altitude of more than 36,000 feet, where there is much less oxygen than ground level. He was initially buffeted by a strong wind current in the first stage of the fall, before gaining an amazingly stable dive. He survived the fall and made it more than 18 miles of horizontal flight before pulling out the parachute. He broke the 17.5-mile world record of the Colombian wingsuiter Jhonathan Florez, who died in a crash last July, according to Popular Science.
See the incredible feat in the video below.
"I believe you have two choices in life. You have discipline and you have regret," Stumpf said after the dive. "You can want to do all these cool things and not work hard and you can regret the fact that you never got there or you can see what you want to do and have the discipline to do what you need to and get where you want to go."
