The Complete Handbook of Air Suits

The air suit, or wingsuit, is the most demanding piece of personal flight equipment a skydiver will ever own. Yet most pilots learn about their gear from a manufacturer's sales page or a friend at the drop zone. This handbook changes that. It begins by explaining exactly what an air suit is, how inflatable ram-air cells generate lift, and why your body position and wing loading determine whether you are flying a precision glider or a falling tent. Every chapter builds on that foundation with concrete, testable information: how to read fabric denier and seam construction, what the sizing charts do not tell you, and how to diagnose a suit that pitches nose-down at deployment.

The book does not stop at the purchase. It walks through the physical process of donning, zipping, and connecting a suit, and the daily pre-flight checks that professional instructors and competitive pilots rely on. Maintenance is covered in equal depth: washing, storage, fabric repair, and the legal and practical rules around who is allowed to sew a 3,000-foot rip-stop panel. For the business reader, the final sections analyze how drop zones, rental fleets, and training programs actually make money with wingsuits, and how the next generation of materials and regulation will reshape the market.

Written for professionals and serious hobbyists, this is not a coffee-table book. It is a field manual you will take to the loft, read with a highlighter, and keep near your gear bag.