Bodyflight / Indoor Skydiving
Bodyflight is an acrobatic sport involving skydiving or a vertical tunnel to perform turns, rolls, and other elegant maneuvers while in the air. The maneuvers performed during any one of the trained flying styles: belly flying, back flying, sit flying and head-down flying.
The sole focus of bodyflight is the fly through the air in a controlled and attractive way. Often, this style of skydiving is done in groups in order to fly close to each other, link up in a predetermined formation then fly apart to a safe distance and pull open their chute.
Bodyflight is possible due to changes in drag on the body while using the arms and legs as rudders to control movement through the air. These athletes who jump tend to shape their body to be more airfoil-like in order to increase their jump distances.
However, not all bodyflight is performed in the sky. Many athletes will practise in a wind tunnel, which is a vertical tube with a high power fan creating the feeling of weightlessness and flying in the air. While some athletes will practise their skills for the air in the tunnel others are doing it to become air acrobats.
Interesting Fact: Those who use the vertical tunnel are often referred to as tunnel rats.
Similar Sports
- Skysurfing — a skydiver attaches a board to his feet during freefall.
- Parachuting / Skydiving — a involves jumping from an aircraft with just a parachute.
- Wingsuit Flying — a variety of skydiving, where a person will fly in the air using a special jumpsuit called the wingsuit.
Related Pages
- About Air Sports
- Complete list of sports
- The Encyclopedia of Sports
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