This is an older video, circa 2003 I believe, showing Loïc Jean-Albert in a wingsuit “flying” down a mountain in Verbier, Switzerland at about 15 feet above the surface, literally a “human glider.”

Wingsuit flying is the art of flying the human body through the air using a special jumpsuit, called a wingsuit, that shapes the human body into an airfoil which can create lift. The wingsuit creates the airfoil shape with fabric sewn between the legs and under the arms. A wingsuit can be flown from any point that provides sufficient altitude to glide through the air, such as skydiving aircraft or BASE jumping exit points. The flier will deploy a parachute at a planned altitude and unzip the arm wings so they can reach up to the parachute control toggles and fly to a normal skydiving or BASE jumping landing.

The wingsuit doesn’t actually allow one to “fly”, at least not in the traditional sense of the word. While the “flyer” does have some directional control, he (or she) cannot gain or maintain altitude. Make no mistake, he’s still falling. Fast. The sport is apparently an offshoot of traditional skydiving adding an even greater adrenalin rush. It may also have some basis in the 1969 Burt Lancaster film, The Gypsy Moths in which a group of barnstorming skydivers employs a “wingsuit” of sorts with disastrous results.