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UTSAV GANDHI

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TechNews | Tuesday, 0ct0ber16, 2012

HT Professorjoins 99 others to break skydiving record

By Ryan Kamphuis
EDITOR—IN—CHIEF

HT has many claims to fame, and
it just added a new claim to its laundry list of
achievments. On September 22 HT’s Profes—
sor John Kallend joined 99 other skydivers in
setting a new world record by performing a
formation wingsuit dive from 13,000 feet. The
divers jumped from five different airplanes
to form a diamond formation as they fell.

This isn’t the first time Kallend has
been involved in a record—setting skydive. Kal—
lend was a member ofthe team who set the pre—
vious wingsuit formation dive record, and as a
member of that team, he was contacted to take
part in this new attempt to break the record.

A key part of this world record was
the fact that all of the skydivers wore wingsuits
for their jump. A wingsuit is a special type of
skydiving suit that has fabric between the legs
and between both arms and the torso. This fab—
ric is specially installed so that air is trapped
in it, pressurizing the sections. This turns the
suit into a simple airfoil, allowing the wearer
of the wingsuit to travel horizontally while
skydiving, something typical skydivers are not
able to do. The design of the wingsuit makes
it “like wearing a straightjacket,” said Kallend,
making a wingsuit jump much more complex
than a typical jump. Due to this fact, a lot of
experience is needed in order to use a wing—
suit. A skydiver must have completed at least

 

200 skydives before they will be allowed to
make wingsuit jumps. Throughout this past
summer, tryouts were held internationally
to assemble the crew for this record attempt.
The crew represents the best and most expe—
rienced wingsuit divers in the world. Kallend
himself has completed over 600 wingsuit
dives before becoming a part of this team.

The record attempt was made in Per—
ris Valley in Southern California. This location
was chosen from a shortlist of 10 dropzones,
which were the only ones in the country who
could handle a group of this size. When the
team assembled the weekend of the record at—
tempt, large amounts of practice went into each
jump. “We practiced 15 minutes on the ground
for every minute in the air,” said Kallend,
“we would walk out the sequence of building
the formation in the air and breaking off the
formation so we could deploy parachutes.”

Forming the record—breaking 100—
man diamond was very diflicult, and despite
the massive amounts of experience the team
had and the large amounts of practice per—
formed, the formation was not successfully
achieved on the first try. The crew was not
successful until their 10th try over the week—
end. Until the jump was successful, “we would
jump every two hours,” said Kallend. After an
unsuccessful jump, team members would use
those two hours to repack their parachutes,
debrief, and rehydrate before going back up.

The successful jump was quite
a sight to behold and experience. Divers

jumped from a height of 14,500 feet above
sea level. Because of their wingsuits, it is es—
timated that they traveled two miles hori—
zontally while in freefall. Kallend estimates
that while in freefall, each skydiver was trav—
elling 18 miles per hour forward and 55
miles per hour downward. The divers would
freefall for two minutes and 15 seconds be—

 

fore deploying their parachutes at 2,500 feet.

With the world record set, the
only thing left to do is break it once again.
The last wing suit formation record was
set three years ago, and Kallend imagines
that that would be approximately how long
it will be before another attempt is made
to break the record that was set weeks ago.

Photos by Matt Hoover & courtesy ofjames Kallend