BMW just unveiled a turbine-powered electric wingsuit.
A test flight has successfully sent air sports junkie Peter Salzmann soaring through the sky at 300-kilometres-per-hour.
The new concept was developed by BMW with help from Designworks and Salzmann.
BASE jumper Salzmann was looking to improve wingsuit performance in the air. Naturally, he thought of strapping an engine to his chest.
After three years of research and test flights inside BMW’s horizontal wind tunnel (which is usually used to test out aerodynamics) the wingsuit has just completed its maiden flight. Salzmann was dropped by helicopter at around 4,000 meters alongside two other flyers in regular wingsuits.
BMW says the wingsuit accelerated Salzmann to a top speed of 300-kilometres-per-hour, leaving the regular wingsuit flyers in the dust.
The e-wingsuit is built on BMW’s iEV technology. It gave Salzman 15kW of power, split between two carbon impellers. Those impellers (backwards propellers) spin at around 25,000 rpm, and provide thrust for five minutes.
The overall aim of the wingsuit is to allow for longer flights at greater distances.
The wingsuit has been unveiled as part of a new BMW NextGen event, which will give viewers an idea of what BMW’s electric future will look like.
Presumably, it will involve cars and not thousands of people rocketing about on wingsuits.
Esquire now has a newsletter – sign up to get it sent straight to your inbox.
Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit ‘Like’ on our Esquire Facebook page and ‘Follow’ on our @esquiremiddleeast Instagram and Twitter account.
