Fly Away

We all admire and even envy birds for their power of flight. Flight is synonymous with freedom, and it is only natural that we would want to escape our terrestrial jail. Though we may enjoy a bird’s eyes view of the world as we stare out the airplane window, we are limited in our destination and insulated from our environment.

Up to now, parachutes have allowed us to fall through the sky without dying on impact, and paragliding and hang gliding have permitted us to sail on the wind with minimal equipment. As it is unlikely that human beings will ever develop wings of their own, the wingsuit was created to bring us even closer to natural flight. Using the time-tested design of animals such as flying lizards and squirrels, these suits have revolutionized human flight, providing the daring (and perhaps crazy) with a new-found freedom and adrenaline rush.


Living la vida loca

While birds developed wings out of practical concerns: to escape danger, find food, and occupy hitherto inaccessible ecological niches, like people they also enjoy flying and are perhaps even proud of their unique talent. Let me offer two examples to support my case. Once, while at the beach, I happened upon some birds playing in the waves. The surf was up that day and the seagulls, hovering in the air and sitting in the water behind the surf zone, were taking turns dropping in on and gliding along the face of the ten foot plus waves, much as a surfer might, pulling out just before impact. They did this for the better part of an hour. I have seen this phenomenon before with dolphins and pelicans, but though dolphin play has been acknowledged, bird play has been largely ignored. Among the surfers of the world, where “surfer” means one who rides waves for fun, we can include birds and acknowledge that they are better at it than we are, effectively harnessing the air foil of the wave without ever wiping out.

The pride of birds became apparent to me when again on the beach, on a windy day, I watched the seagulls lift off and hang suspended a few feet off the ground supported by a strong headwind. It seemed to me that the look in their eyes was one of superiority, which seemed to say: Don’t you wish you could fly like me? Don’t you?




Feeling superior?

The latest wingsuit technology aside, the human desire for flight is nothing new. More than fun, it is an expression of our deep desire to escape the limits of our terrestrial habitat, natural laws such as gravity, and our own humanity. Like tourism, flight offers us an escape from our daily routine and the local politics of our communities. Like any sort of travel, distance allows us to reflect and gain perspective on our lives. On a deeper level, we wish to escape ourselves, or more precisely individual consciousness. After all, being conscious and desiring not to be is what makes us human.


For more on wingsuits, click here.
Check out this great video of wingsuit flying in Norway.
The flying squirrel, a prototype for human flight.