Birdman Blade?

[Zeemax 0]

To try and answer some of the questions here:

- The Blade will sit at the top of the Bird Man range in terms of performance. It does not replace any particular suit, but instead is to be considered a step up from S6.

- It retails at 1200 Euro. This price is inclusive of VAT etc. The only thing on top is shipping, of which there are two price options. If you live in the states, there is a different price, which is of course charged in $. I don't have that price to hand.

- In addition to the suit, you also get a "first aid" kit for those accidents that can happen. This contains some extra material, rip stop tape, arm zipper, flight manual and some stickers.

We were getting a lot of very positive interest and comments for the Blade over the weekend at the AGM and it was really good to meet all those from here. I look forward to seeing you all again in the skies.

Phoenix Fly - High performance wingsuits for skydiving and BASE
Performance Designs - Simply brilliant canopies

[mccordia 74]

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I wouldn't mind seeing one in pressure mode on the ground.

If you would put a hose onto the wings, you could really use it to fill up an inflatable raft...:)

Didnt have any issues at pulltime with the wing (which was my fear, with the wings staying inflated so well).
There is a gap missing where you reach for your pilot. In all the jumps I did with the suit, I never had any issue with wing getting in the way of pulling..

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[desert1 0]

well at least birdman is finally are heading to the right direction; that if you want to move forward in flight the leg wing has to be in proportionaly bigger that the arm wings. everything else like the fancy shape arms wings looks very futuristic, good job, but where did the large front deflectors go? were they not put there for better "performance"? can you please explain a little bit what kind of changes did you guys make in the years of testing? there must be a ton of information you guys can share with us. glide ratios that were achieved for example.

enjoy.

---------------------------------
canyon bar

[Buried 0]

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- It retails at 1200 Euro. This price is inclusive of VAT etc. The only thing on top is shipping, of which there are two price options. If you live in the states, there is a different price, which is of course charged in $. I don't have that price to hand.

the price online (when you switch to USD) is 1600$.. that can't be right!


*edit to add - they do have some cool patterns for colors shown on there too

Where is my fizzy-lifting drink?

[jakee 1,489]

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I had an S-3 with airlocked backvents. There was no difference between it and a regular S3 in regards to pressurization. Does the blade have a complex Labyrinth seal in the airlock to keep the air in when on the ground? Or is each inlet equiped with its own lock?

But your S3 didn't have airlocks on the front inlets. The leg wing is really pressurized quite a lot on the Blade. I don't bother trying to close it before deployment, too much work. I just dump from full flight.

I've never found it difficult to collapse the wing on my Firebird, does that mean it's leaking air?

How different are the Blade's airlocks to the Firebird's?

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[Gadget 0]

Firebird's don't have airlocks,only backvents

If people from Poland are called Poles, why aren't people from Holland called Holes???
My logbook

[pierre3636 0]

It’s an interesting point and something we discussed on the weekend - on (leading edge) wing deflectors ARE wider bigger deflectors (both intakes and outlets) better than big inlets with small thin air outlets? I have a s3s which has big hard deflectors which i assume push a wide scoop of air over the top skin of my arm wings.... on my MACH1 the intakes are quite big too but the out flow is quite narrow and small and alot denser i.e. for every one big deflector on my s3s the M1 has 3 or 4 smaller outflows.
In the state that we use the deflectors in my mind it makes sense that bigger air intakes that pressure the more air into smaller out lets puts that air under more pressure which makes it move faster and and thus ‘harder’ (a visible example of the physics would be if you open a tap connected toa hosepipe, if you squeeze your index finger over the end of the pipe it puts the water under pressure and a stronger (narrower) jet of water squirts out the front of the pipe.) Does the higher pressurised and thus higher speed of air be better or worse for wing efficiency ?

~ time is ~ time was ~ times past ~

[Gadget 0]

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- It retails at 1200 Euro. This price is inclusive of VAT etc. The only thing on top is shipping, of which there are two price options. If you live in the states, there is a different price, which is of course charged in $. I don't have that price to hand.

the price online (when you switch to USD) is 1600$.. that can't be right!


*edit to add - they do have some cool patterns for colors shown on there too

Unfortunally if you converse the dollar to euro, it's about right.it's about € 1,30 for the $

If people from Poland are called Poles, why aren't people from Holland called Holes???
My logbook

[Buried 0]

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- It retails at 1200 Euro. This price is inclusive of VAT etc. The only thing on top is shipping, of which there are two price options. If you live in the states, there is a different price, which is of course charged in $. I don't have that price to hand.

the price online (when you switch to USD) is 1600$.. that can't be right!

*edit to add - they do have some cool patterns for colors shown on there too

Unfortunally if you converse the dollar to euro, it's about right.it's about € 1,30 for the $

at 1,3 it comes to 1560.. and is on par with the other conversions for BM. And I could always add that the EU price include 22% VAT, which we shouldn't pay, but in some sense we do (not 22% tho).
I just can't imagine why would someone in the US would want to pay at least 300-400 MORE for a suit when there are similar suits out there. And ff they are going to add in a first aid kit, they shouldn't pass the $ onto the consumer or make it an 'optional purchase'. just my 2 cents.

Where is my fizzy-lifting drink?

[jakee 1,489]

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Firebird's don't have airlocks, only backvents

So what would you call the fabric flaps covering the air intakes then? Y'know, the ones that are described as airlocks on the Bird-Man website.

How do the airlocks on the Blade differ from the airlocks on the firebird, and are my wings actually leaking air?

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[Gadget 0]

From birdman Fierbird webpage:
Air intakes with airlocks on BACKSIDE allow smooth flying even when flying on your back. Later on you want to flock together with other birdmen and –women


from birdman Blade webpage:
BOTH sides, front and back, are equipped with formed air-intakes with air-locks.

On the firebird the air-locks are there (if i'm correct ) to keep the air in the wings when you are flying belly to earth

If people from Poland are called Poles, why aren't people from Holland called Holes???
My logbook

[jakee 1,489]

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From birdman Fierbird webpage:
Air intakes with airlocks on BACKSIDE allow smooth flying even when flying on your back. Later on you want to flock together with other birdmen and –women

They are the same front and back both on the legs and the arms. I'm looking at them right now. (well, the leg backvent itself is different but the airlock is the same).

The Firebird airlocks are basically flaps of fabric that cover the vent itself and extend a couple inches below it - how different are the ones on the Blade? What does formed mean? Does the fact that my leg wing does not behave like the one on the Blade mean that the wing is bleeding air?

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[Tonto 1]

All inflatable wings leak air.

They just don't leak enough to matter much.

t

It's the year of the Pig.

[jakee 1,489]

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All inflatable wings leak air.

They just don't leak enough to matter much.

t

And even if they did I'd have to become a much better flyer for it to actually matter

I just really want to know what the difference is and how they work!

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[mccordia 74]

I dont remember the Firebird inlets that well, but as far as my memory goes, its roughly the same system...just works a lot better on the Blade (the locking seems to be better)
Its quite nice, having the wings stay inflated in transitions, allowing you to fly the transition, and not having to deal with a wing that takes half a second to inflate again properly once you're on your back..

But still..if you cant backfly in a suit without double inflation, you probably wont be able to do it in one with..still takes practice... But it does make life a LOT easyer

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[VectorBoy 0]

And even if they did I'd have to become a much better flyer for it to actually matter

[jakee 1,489]

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Actually this is not true. It takes very little air leaking up into your upper camber surface to absolutely kill any lift.

Look up Sailplane spoilers. In most cases they are tiny little doors that can bring a wing with fantastic glide ratio down quik

I used to fly sailplanes, they killed the lift by blocking off the top of the wing, not leaking air. Hell, the wing of a modern glider is so finely tuned that even something as small as droplets of water on the top surface brings a noticeable change in performance. I don't think wingsuits are that good yet.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[Macthe 0]

Actually this is not true. It takes very little air leaking up into your upper camber surface to absolutely kill any lift.

but ive heard of wing's that "leak" air to create better laminar flow??

[VectorBoy 0]

I used to fly sailplanes, they killed the lift by blocking off the top of the wing, not leaking air. Hell, the wing of a modern glider is so finely tuned that even something as small as droplets of water on the top surface brings a noticeable change in performance. I don't think wingsuits are that good yet.

[VectorBoy 0]

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Actually this is not true. It takes very little air leaking up into your upper camber surface to absolutely kill any lift.

but ive heard of wing's that "leak" air to create better laminar flow??

You may be confusing this with an airfoil that is designed to be "turbulated". More effective use of lift at slower speeds with a lot of spanwise segments. Kind of like some ultralights.

Or you may be referring to the texture of most supersonic aircraft that is somewhat textured and not smooth. This keeps the first boundary layer energized and not so sticky.

What I'm refering to is the definitive loss off lift in my S3 that was backvented and airlocked compared to a very similar sized straight production model. Imagine an S3 that never has any arm strain, ever. The reason was that the pull from lift was never great enough to be felt by the human arm on the backvented model. And the kicker was that good flockers can always fly their regular non-backvented wingsuit on their backs very efficiently. I got tons of video of this.My V-2 is of course non vented but I have flown it for a few moments inverted just fine.

I love the ACRO and want one. I have not tested the Phacro which offers a non-vented version the phantom to compare. I would love to test the "air tightness" of the Blade.

[pbla4024 0]

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Actually this is not true. It takes very little air leaking up into your upper camber surface to absolutely kill any lift.

but ive heard of wing's that "leak" air to create better laminar flow??

Not leak, but suck. Put bunch of tiny holes to surface of wing and apply vacuum to suck air into wing.

Fido

[aarthus 0]

Just a question about the the blade's leg wing ! It is said that " Leg wing is totally new and 15 cm wider than the S6 " but when you look at the birdmantopgun pictures, it look like it's the opposite ! the leg wing and the defector appears to be smaller ! is it a visual effect ? the size of the back deflector is maybe longer ?
thanks !

Patrick de Guillebon

[Kunstrasen 0]

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Just a question about the the blade's leg wing ! It is said that " Leg wing is totally new and 15 cm wider than the S6 " but when you look at the birdmantopgun pictures, it look like it's the opposite ! the leg wing and the defector appears to be smaller ! is it a visual effect ? the size of the back deflector is maybe longer ?
thanks !

As far as I understand the topgun pics show prototypes, not the massproduction model.

[mccordia 74]

The legwing on the prototype we flew in spain was attached to the back of the leg, and enabled you to roll your ankles out 90 degrees, and use the booties as part of the wing. Giving you a large surface area. When flocking, your feet are down, and you have your legs hanging underneath the wing as 2 stabilsing rudders..

But the max flying position felt so weird (and difficult to hold), and the wing on the back of the legs also gave you less feeling on what the wing was doing, that we went back to the 'classic' S6 style legwing (attached to the front of the leg) that was on earlyer prototypes, which you now you see on the production model.

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[aarthus 0]

It makes more sense ! Looks really good this new model ! will it be possible in future to try one ? and what about the colors ? will it be possible to choose your own out of those presented on the site ?

Patrick de Guillebon