Skydivers make history with incredible wingsuit flight through Tower Bridge
Two skydivers made history on Sunday by becoming the first and second to complete a wingsuit flight through London's Tower Bridge.
Red Bull-sponsored daredevils Marco Fürst and Marco Waltenspiel jumped from a helicopter 3,000 feet high and dived 35m down to fly between the road and upper section of the bridge.
The Austrians then rose 80m high to parachute safely onto a landing platform placed on the River Thames. The pair reached speeds of 246kph during the early morning stunt, for which Tower Bridge was closed.
The appropriately-named Fürst said the training had taken more than two years and involved two cranes to mimic the dimensions of the Tower Bridge.
“I just feel amazing,” he said. “The jump was beautiful and everything worked out really well. In the last two and a half years we planned everything through and had the best preparation and training.
“I really enjoyed the journey and I’m really grateful to work with Marco and such a good team to bring our dream to life.”
The stunt was possible thanks to state of the art wingsuits which can provide enough stability to convert vertical falling into a horizontal flight.
Red Bull skydivers Marco Fürst and Marco Waltenspiel (Peter Salzmann / Red Bull Content Pool)
The two have now completed more than 22,000 jumps between them having also taken part in stunts in the iconic ski slope Kitzbühl in Austria.
Waltenspiel added: “You can't rebuild this unique bridge. We did around 200 training jumps just for this day, just for this minute.
“The difference between training and today is, of course, huge. It’s not a common jump, it’s unique. It was quite intense and I’m super happy now.”
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