People have dreamed of flying for thousands of years. The story of Ikaros and his father Daidalos is told in Greek mythology. They escape from captivity by building wings out of feathers and wax. However, the young Ikaros does not listen to his father and becomes overconfident. He flies too close to the sun, which melts the wax, and he falls into the sea. Today, we have completely different means at our disposal: Airplanes, parachutes, paragliders, bungee jumping, wingsuits, … or even a wind tunnel.
The wind tunnel is a technical marvel that never ceases to fascinate us. That’s why we’d like to give you a few interesting facts about it:
- It has a total height of 39 meters.
- The flight chamber has a diameter of 4.3 m.
- The “walls” of the flight chamber are made of 40 mm soundproof bulletproof glass.
- The “floor” of the flight chamber consists of an elastic safety net.
- The maximum flight altitude is 17 m.
- The wind tunnel works according to the circulation principle.
Four drive fans ensure air circulation. - Air speeds of up to 280 km/h are possible.
- The deflection elements are made of aluminum and have a total length of 1.9 km and a weight of 22 tons.
- Every 4 seconds, 25 percent of the air in the circuit can be replaced by outside air.
- Every second, 1000 m3 flows through the flight chamber.
This corresponds to the air volume of a detached house.
What we are particularly proud of is the fact that our wind tunnel is the first to use the waste heat generated for heating and hot water.
Building a wind tunnel like this is a huge project. It was developed in collaboration with the Aerospace Center of the Technical University of Berlin in Germany and is at the top international level in terms of energy efficiency, safety and design. As passionate skydivers, it was important to us to create a place in German-speaking Switzerland that complements the local training opportunities and enables training regardless of the weather. At the same time, sports and adventure enthusiasts from the age of five will also find an unforgettable mix of adrenaline and adventure. And all this in a super-safe environment.