What rockets a person across the Alps at 300 km/h?

The answer is an electrified wingsuit by BMW i. BMW is now powering human flight as the company presents an electric drive for a wingsuit. Two carbon propellers with a total output of 15 kW form the fly unit of the wingsuit that promises about five minutes of airborne freedom.

According to Austrian base jumper and skydiver Peter Salzmann who played an important role in the design and development of electrically motorised wingsuit, pilots will experience “immediate acceleration, allowing them to fly at speeds of more than 186 mph (300 km/h).”

A traditional wingsuit – as two other skydivers accompanying Salzmann are wearing in the video below – involves a suit with pieces of material between the arms and the legs resembling a flying squirrel or, when on the ground, a particularly fabulous dress. With a regular unmotorised wingsuit, skydivers can reach speeds of more than 100 km/h. The electric motor adds 200 km/h of speed. Not for the faint at heart.

The suit was developed in cooperation with BMWi and Designworks, a subsidiary of the BMW Group that has strongly influenced the design of the BMWi brand from the very beginning. Designworks applies its creative skills not only in the automotive sector but also on behalf of numerous international customers from other industry branches.

This electrically motorised wingsuit is being used as a spectacular eye-catcher for BMW’s #NEXTGen 2020 presentations on the company’s latest products and ideas on the future of individual motorised mobility beginning today.

bmwgroup.com, carscoops.com (with video)