February 1935: The First Flight
The Jump: A Michigan stuntman named Clem Sohn, wearing a homemade bat-winged suit made from sailcloth, jumps from a plane at 12,000 feet and glided towards the earth, completing three loops in view of journalists. The feat is splashed across front pages around the world.
Why It Matters: “People had tried wingsuits before, but Sohn was the guy who showed you could do it more than once,” says Matt Gerdes, a wingsuit athlete and author of The Great Book of BASE. “It all points back to him.”Back to top