BASE Jumping
Almost close enough to touch. Fred Fugen jumped at the chance to fly through the ancient pyramids of Giza. Here's how this dream took flight.
Frédéric Fugen has long been one of the most innovative skydivers, wingsuit pilots and BASE jumpers on the planet. Now, Fugen has flown closer to the great pyramids of Giza, Egypt, than any wingsuit pilot before.
Fugen, 42, is well known for his visionary projects, where we've seen him enter a plane in mid-air, pull off jaw-dropping manoeuvres high above Mont Blanc and make a nail-biting proximity flight through Lebanon.
Now the French BASE jumper and wingsuit expert has come up with another in his long list of creative and imaginative challenges. In his new video, we see him soar through the Egyptian sky alongside Vincent Cotte, a former member of the French national paragliding team. The two fly within metres of the ancient pyramids of Giza and get close enough to the Pyramid of Khafre almost to touch its millennia-old stones with their hands.
Fugen himself didn't think this project was feasible until local paragliding school Skydive Egypt was able to help his dream come true. Fugen and Cotte were able to join Skydive Egypt's annual Jump Like a Pharaoh event. Because the wingsuit pilots can perform the 'resource' technique to gain altitude at the end of their drop, they were allowed to join the jump of a lifetime.
I felt so small in front of such big monuments. I never even thought I would be able to make this flight one day
"Until now, skydiving was only allowed above the pyramids at high altitudes. It's the first time a wingsuit flight has been made this close," explains Fugen. "It has been absolutely amazing to get right next to these giant stones, some of the last wonders of the ancient world that are still visible today. I felt so small in front of such big monuments. I never even thought I would be able to make this flight one day. If this project has been possible, it is because flying techniques and materials have evolved a lot recently."
The 'resource' manoeuvre was demonstrated by Fugen and his late, beloved friend and Soul Flyers partner, Vince Reffet, at the Courbe lighthouse in Charente Maritime, France. They showed that they had improved their wingsuit and parachute equipment to open up quicker and allow them to fly closer to the ground.
Fugen and Cotte dropped in at an altitude of 1,500m, reaching speeds of up to 250kph at a minimum elevation of 90m before employing the 'resource'. This technique gave them another 50m of height for the duo to open their parachutes at 140m – the exact height of the Pyramid of Khafre.