Jari Kuosma is the original developer of modern and commercial wingsuit (as a product), wingsuit flying

Wingsuit flying

Wingsuit flying is the sport of flying the human body through the air using a special jumpsuit, called a wingsuit, which adds surface area to the human body to enable a significant increase in lift. Modern wingsuits, first developed in the late 1990s, create the surface area with fabric between the...

 (as a sport) and owner of BirdMan Inc. Kuosma has over 5000 jumps. He has worked as an Accelerated Free Fall (AFF) Instructor in USA, Sweden and Venezuela. He introduced the first wingsuit training program for skydivers in 1999. A wingsuit instructor program followed the year after.

Kuosma began skydiving in 1990. He took part in the breaking of the Finnish record for free-falling formation in 1993, and introduced a Russian low-altitude jumping technique into Finland. He was introduced to wingsuits in 1997, based on those used by Patrick de Gayardon

Patrick de Gayardon

Patrick de Gayardon was a French skydiver, skysurfer and a BASE jumper.De Gayardon was famous for pushing the boundaries of skydiving. He was one of the first people to develop the unique style of skysurfing, in which skydivers use a snowboard to make aerobatic maneuvers...

. With Robert Pecnik, he began selling wingsuits in 1999, after making them in Slovenia.

Early life

Kuosma was raised in Helsinki, Finland by his father, who owned an army surplus store, and his mother, who was a secretary. As a teenager he practised martial arts.

External links

• Jari Kuosma's profile at Birdman