BRAVE BASE JUMPER TRADES WINGSUIT FOR RUG TO PULL OFF ALADIN MOMENT
Do you remember Aladdin? The romantic ride on a magic carpet is one of the most famous scenes from the Disney animated feature film. Furthermore, although many people have fantasized about having their magic carpet, this is sadly unfeasible. But Fred Fugen, a French base jumper, has discovered the next big thing. The courageous sportsman exchanged his wingsuit for a sizable rug, giving the impression that he was flying down the Italian Dolomites on a real magic carpet.
To make this a reality, Fugen has started a project called Alladin Skylab, utilising his 20 years of experience with hang gliders, paragliding wings, ultralights, and wingsuits. After a year of planning, Fugen created a simple, low-tech base jumping apparatus that only uses his tensed body's rigidity to keep its shape. It does this without the use of inflatable parts. Before the main jump, which he called his "masterpiece with this rug," Fugen completed 40 practice jumps after learning how to "domesticate and ride this furry carpet." While other jumpers assisted in filming the stunt, he used a drone to capture the exhilarating moment.
"We can let us taste and feel the magic of the pinnacle meeting between the very low-tech ancestral minimalist carpet science and the very high-tech, high-end wingsuit technology with two of the best acro wingsuit pilots in the world, @arvidendler and @daniroman from @redbull, carving around like a flying carousel [sic], never seen before," writes Fugen. "Now that the real magic carpet got out of its secret Ali Baba cave somewhere in France." Fugen went on to say that the wingsuiters must have seen something akin to a surrealistic UFO flying carpet, while his "Aladdin" point of view was like sparkling stars turning around.