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Comment by zeteo | Hacker News Reader

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zeteo·

The original wingsuit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Reichelt

The original computer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytical_Engine

The original steam engine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolipile

Just because something similar has been tried before doesn't mean the basics are wrong.

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Well, to be picky, no one has made a wing suit that does what the Reichelt hoped to do. The current version just lets you have some fun before you open your parachute. Unless you want to count stuff like hang gliders.

If you mean a wingsuit that can let you fly all the way to the ground at a speed low enough to land and survive -- then no one ever will. A wing that's big enough to have those low speeds will tear off your arms.

Popular Science had an article in 2003 examining wingsuits and the futile effort towards using them to land without a parachute, and they had a great diagram illustrating the problem: http://web.archive.org/web/20030623234930/http://www.popsci....

and yet they (somehow) managed to do that anyway: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRB-woVjlFY

> using a specially adapted wing suit before landing on a "runway" of 18,000 cardboard boxes.

I think most people would agree with me when I say that doesn't really count. =P

Yes, GP said: "Just because something similar has been tried before doesn't mean the basics are wrong." In this case the basis is very wrong.

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