Re: [460] The Gypsy Moths
Carl Boenish did the skydiving film work for that film. There are a number of wingsuit jumps. Those wingsuits had rigid wood. No deaths in the filming from what I recall. But of the 62 wingsuits that were made and 62 jumpers who used them, 60 died from their wingsuits, and Carl Boenish was one who did not. It involved having their arms broken due to the flawed wingsuit design, which resulted in a no pull situation.
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That is the legend, but I believe it's mostly myth. There are lots of people around even now who were jumping wingsuits in the old days. Most just stopped doing it because they weren't real efficient anyways, or maybe they got scared. When they first started, guys couldn't even fall stable, let alone get much performance out of batwings.... That's not to say there weren't a number of deaths under batwings, but there were probably more people that jumped them, and percentage of fatalities was much lower than legend says.