Wingsuit batman flies through Chinese mountain
American Jeb Corliss wings his way through a giant cave in China's Tianmen mountain.
(Credit:
GoPro)
I can't imagine that there are too many people around who have flown through a mountain, but U.S. BASE jumper Jeb Corliss can add that to his resume after recently soaring through a peak in China.
Wearing a wingsuit, a parachute, and GoPro Hero cameras strapped to his body, Corliss managed to fly through a hole in Tianmen mountain, Hunan Province.
The famous Tianmen Hole in the limestone peak is about 360 feet tall, 96 feet wide, and 260 feet deep.
Corliss dropped out of a helicopter at 6,000 feet and glided toward the cave like a flying squirrel. A GPS display in his helmet goggles kept him on a precise course for his flight, which was about two-thirds of a mile.
As seen in the video below, he shot right through the cave like a bat out of hell, then deployed his parachute on the other side for a safe landing on a bridge.
The event drew intense media coverage in China, as did a 1999 stunt during which light aircraft were flown through the peak.
Wingsuits have helped provide some of the sickest extreme sport video around, especially when jumpers are just 10 feet away from a face-first encounter with a cliff.
I'm still waiting for them to figure out how to land without a parachute.
