Wingsuit Pilots to Make World’s First Trip across Grand Canyon
Millions of people see the Grand Canyon every year, but an ambitious group of wingsuit pilots will be doing something this April that has never been done before. As with many historical firsts at the Grand Canyon, this incredible feat will involve danger, excitement, split-second timing, immeasurable skill, and, of course, the monumental land formation itself. Photographer and wingsuit pilot Dr. Glenn Singleman will accompany his team as they perform history’s first cross-canyon wingsuit flight, crossing the Grand Canyon’s five miles of gaping depth at up to 124 miles per hour.
In preparation for their 30,000-foot decent, the team will need to breathe pure oxygen over the course of an hour or risk the bends. Due to the exceptional elevation, pure oxygen will also be supplied via oxygen masks during the decent, just one part of an advanced set of equipment used by the team. You may have taken a few Grand Canyon tours, but no one has ever done anything like this.
Their state-of-the-art equipment on this journey will include…
- Custom-made zero-porosity nylon wingsuits with 19 minutes of oxygen in the wings
- Military-grade oxygen masks
- Sena Bluetooth communication devices
- FlySight GPS and altimeter
A Sony A75 camera, an AX100 4K camcorder, and a handful of AS-100V Action Cams
The sophistication of this technology goes beyond low latency or high resolution. As the jump’s primary photographer, Dr. Singleman will have the A75 – a personal favorite of his – attached to his helmet and triggered by a bite switch alongside the 4K camcorder. With so much equipment to be mounted to his helmet, Singleman will be strengthening his neck muscles in preparation. When the parachute is deployed, the wingsuit pilot’s decent slows from 124 miles per hour to just 12 in a matter of seconds. The rest of Singleman’s team will be outfitted with dual Action Cams set to record the entire decent.
The team, consisting of Dr. Singleman, his wife, Heather Swan, Vicente Cajiga, Rodger Hugelhofer, and Paul Tozer have been making a lot of incredible flights lately in various locations around Australia including their most recent flight, the world’s first wingsuit flight over Brisbane, Australia. Their other notable accomplishments include ascending India’s Mt. Meru over the course of three weeks and flying back down in only 3 minutes, setting a world record for the highest BASE jump ever completed.
The cross-canyon jump itself wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment idea. It’s actually been in the planning stages for over a year as the team gathered the needed clearances to pilot their aircraft into an area usually only seen by Grand Canyon helicopter tours and cross-country airliners moving between Los Angeles and New York. Even with a year of planning, the team only has a six-minute window to complete the jump, but the date itself has been set. Between 7:38 and 7:44 a.m. on April 7th, Dr. Singleman and his team will be plummeting through the air, moving forward across the 5-mile wide canyon at speeds reaching 124 miles per hour.
Check back soon for more news on this historic jump as it develops, and don’t forget to keep an eye out for footage and photographs of the jump after it happens this April! If you had the opportunity to fly over the canyon in a wingsuit, would you take it? Let us know in the comments section below!
