This won't come as much of a surprise but they already sponsor some events and competitors.

What is the glide ratio on these suits? How much control do these guys have over gaining a little bit of altitude when they need it?

Bad.

The ratio is about 3:1. 3 feet of forward flight for every 1 foot of descent.

You cannot gain any altitude while in one of these suits... Unless you happen to have a rocket strapped on your back.

yesterday's xkcd is topical:

It seems like they'd have a lot of induced drag; is there a pronounced ground effect?

Ground effect would only happen about 3 feet from the ground. Unless you are trying to land without pulling your chute there is no ground effect.

Ground effect is an increase of lift and a decrease of drag... Or an increase of lift without an increase of power. This happens about a wingspan away from the ground in a fixed-wing airframe or about 1.5x the blade length of a rotor airframe.

I'm surprised they seem to have no ability to stall them, or even temporarily alter their glide ratio much in exchange for speed. They're more in controlled falls than flight; seems a bit more surface area would give them a much bigger set of possibilities (but less speed, and probably huge control issues).

Not really a ton of induced drag, since it's a function of lift^2 and you aren't even lifting your body weight. Although i guess you have a stubby aspect ratio.

The stubby aspect ratio plus the high angle of attack makes it seem like it'd have a lot. Maybe not enough to use ground effect practically, but maybe with some smoke devices on the feet they could get some cool vortex pics.

Pretty great article, and pretty effin' nuts.

helmets and kneew pads and elbow pads are more for landing because the landing areas are sometimes very dicy
sure just make up statistics and compare them to drug adicts and suicidal people. have you ever met any base jumpers and had a talk about them about how dangerous it is or why they do it? im sure you also get offended if people call all poker players degenerate alcoholic scumbags.
the only race where the fattest athletes will prove to be the fastest
anywhere from 10 mph with the most experienced lightest and tallest wingsuiters for a short period of time to 300 mph in a headdown orientation
they can very well stall them and even go into flatspins which become extremely dangerous in a very short period of time. i remember an experienced wingsuiter once get into a flat spin and when he landed both his eyes were filled with blood from the g forces exerted on him. also the glide ratio is very easy to change because you have a very large range of motion with the wings between your arms and your legs. and yes more surface area means a better glide ratio but harder to control precisely thats why it takes hundreds of jumps in small wingsuits before you can advance to bigger ones if you even are able to advance at all

So what all does someone need to do before they can jump like this? Both legally and in terms of practical experience that you'd want to have to give you a reasonable chance of survival. I want to know the steps to take, how long it would take to complete and how much it would cost. Starting as an average guy in the US with one tandem skydiving experience a few years ago, to solo skydives, to wingsuit skydives, to this. Another poster mentioned the personal requirements for making it that far, I think I have the dedication and mental problems to make it this far, I just need to know about the time.

If money is no option you can get your AFF jumps done in a week or 2 and get the next 150 out of the way in a months. Then you could start to consider using a wingsuit out of a plane. After another few hundred wingsuit jumps you will still have to learn BASE jumping without a wingsuit and get used to jumping earth objects. In reality almost no one will ever be able to do those jumps and proximity flying. But if you are determined you could probably do proximity flying with 3 years but thats a guess. That would also be a lot of money. First skydiving jump is 275 and goes down from there but to get your first 25 jumps might cost around 3 or 4k. After that you can jump for maybe $25 a jump if you have your own rig. add 50 or so to rent a rig. now I am mostly babling about stiff I don't have a ton of knowledge about but my guess would be close to 10-15k to get to the point where you can start using a wingsuit. a few grand for each wingsuit as you progress. Then you need a few K for a BASE only rig, and don't forget to add to the fact almost all the good earth jumps in the USA are in National parks where jumping is illegal and they can confiscate your rig as well if you are caught. Basically your best bed is to get those 150 skydives done and see if it is something you still want to do.

no way
first you need to do a minimum of 200 skydives before they even let you near a wingsuit and then you are using only the most basic wingsuit and base jumping doesnt really have a number of jumps to do if you find a mentor who will coach you'
also once you start flying wingsuits you will probably need hundreds of basejumps without a wingsuit before you will even think about putting on a wingsuit for a basejump
also you have to be very proficient at flying a wingsuit which entails making a few hundred wingsuit skydives maybe even a thousand to make sure you are good enough. of course you can just put one on yourself and jump but you will just end up another statistic.
so yea it probably takes a few years if you are really dedicated and dont have any expenses and spend all your money on skydiving
here is a nice flowchart if you are interested
http://www.wingsuitschool.com/

yeah that is why I said if money is no option. Even then it's very hard and would still take time. In reality anyone looking to get into all of that stuff should focus on skydiving, get your license and get those first 150-200 jumps done. After that you will have a better idea of your chances of ever doing that.

i like this video alot better even though there is no wingsuits in it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0vQvHdN5qA

4min in is the jump. they guy who tracks really far from the building has a wingsuit. That building must be insane looking in real life

I remember seeing a video with Jeb Corliss specifically stating he is researching/developing a wingsuit in which is going to at some point attempt to land without deploying a chute.
anyone know any further details?

IIRC his plan was to further develop the wingsuit so he could slow down to even slower speeds then what they currently are able to achieve, and also build a massive ramp and land parallel to the ramp. The ramp would have had to be massive and he was looking for sponsorship, I presume he has failed to get funding although if it ever does go through with it would be insane.

yeah he was never able to get the funding to build the ramp. I am sure he still wants to though. If it happens I would think it would be a red bull stunt, just not sure if they want to be involved in a stunt that is pretty dangerous even by their standards.

Yeah, redbull have been linked. I think Jeb wanted it to be in Las Vegas on new years eve/day as redbull like to pull one big stunt at this time-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLejkyXbJlc

the adrenaline let down after that is over must be insane.

The funding required was over $2 million. A lot of money to shell out for a single landing.