Airplane wingsuit formation (AWF) is a sub‑discipline of wingsuit flying in which wingsuit pilots exit an aircraft or jump from a cliff and fly a predetermined formation in close proximity to the jump plane. Developed from experimental stunts in the late 1990s, AWF matured in the 2010s into an organised niche of air‑sports with documented record attempts and safety protocols.
History.
“A Door in the Sky” (2017).
On 13 October 2017 the French duo Fred Fugen and Vincent Reffet (Soul Flyers) BASE jumped from the 4,158 m Jungfrau in the Swiss Alps and successfully re‑entered a light aircraft in flight, after more than 100 training sorties of plane‑to‑wingsuit‑to‑plane formation flying.
Although primarily a BASE‑jump stunt, the training programme formalised many of the safety margins (closing speeds, converging angles, radio calls) later adopted by AWF organisers.
Technique and safety.
AWF organisers typically brief three distinct phases:
Common risk factors include aircraft strikes, wake‑turbulence instability and loss of situational awareness in multi‑ship formations.
Involved airplanes.
To date, the following unmodified airplane types have been flying with unpropelled wingsuiters: