China’s foremost “wingsuit” expert, known as the “Chinese Birdman,” participated in the performance competition of the 2013 China Xinjiang Karamay Air Travel Festival on the morning of the 17th, dazzling the airshow crowd with his aerial flying skills.
China’s leading “wingsuit” daredevil, nicknamed the “Chinese Birdman,” performed gravity-defying aerial maneuvers at the 2013 China Xinjiang Karamay Air Travel Festival on the morning of the 17th, leaving the airshow audience in awe.
Xu Kai, a 42-year-old skydiver known as the “Flying Man,” has been practicing international parachute performance shows since 2005 and has accumulated over 500 high-altitude skydiving performances, including more than 200 wingsuit flights. Over the past eight years, he has made multiple trips to the United States for advanced training, completing courses in freestyle skydiving and high-altitude formation flying. In June of this year, he went to Norway to complete cliff wingsuit extreme skydiving training. With this, Xu Kai has become fully capable of performing various types of wingsuit flights independently, earning him the title of China’s first true wingsuit pilot.
Wingsuit flying, also known as proximity flying, emerged in the 1990s. Participants wear specially designed wingsuits and leap from aircraft, tall buildings, towers, bridges, or cliffs to glide through the air without powered propulsion. This sport is hailed as “the ultimate in extreme sports.”
On the 17th, reporters at Karamay Airport saw Xu Kai busily preparing his gear for the performance. At noon, his “high-altitude parachute deployment” wingsuit flight show began. He jumped from an altitude of 2,000 meters, glided without power down to 1,000 meters above the ground, and then opened his parachute. Xu Kai said that wingsuit flying fulfills humanity’s most primal dream—flying like a bird in the blue sky. He hopes more people will join the wingsuit flying community.
According to Coach Huang from the Chinese Air Force’s “August 1st” Parachute Team, where Xu Kai currently trains, Xu is the creator of the “world’s highest bridge wingsuit jump record.” As an extreme sports enthusiast, Xu has expertise in paragliding, skydiving, diving, and ultralight aircraft. After learning high-altitude skydiving under the guidance of national team head coach Zhang Angang, he traveled to the U.S. multiple times for further training, completing courses in freestyle skydiving and high-altitude formation flying.