The Swift is the product of a long and focused development process, and is perhaps the most versatile wingsuit in our range. Although its primary purpose is to be a beginner suit for talented new wingsuit flyers in the skydive and Base environment, its capabilities are not limited to beginner flying.
Our mission for the Swift was to create a suit that was forgiving enough to be flown in an arched box-man position, but with enough performance range to jump a wide variety of objects in the wingsuit Base environment, and to flock comfortably in the skydive environment. This is a suit that is simple enough to put your first jumps on, and yet you will never outgrow it – even when you move up to a larger, high-performance suit, you will still want to keep your Swift around for acro, backflying, or just some high-speed cloud-carving with your friends.
The Swift is designed for talented beginners and experienced pilots of all abilities. Back-fly inlets are offered as an option, making the Swift a fun and agile suit for freestyle flying and steeper, more advanced, formations.
Inlets
The Swift’s 3D reinforced ‘force feed’ inlets are exceptionally efficient, and its overall surface area is slightly larger than some beginner suits. However, both the arm and leg wing pressure can be adjusted with the internal zips, allowing a softer and more manageable ride for newer pilots.
Innie-Outie
Easily transition between Base Mode (harness inside), or Skydive Mode (harness outside). While in Base mode, harness is entirely inside the chest compartment for less drag, and more glide (increased surface). There are no exposed holes when in Base mode as the zippers close off the chest completely. Even if your focus is Base jumping, it’s important to be able to skydive your suit safely. While in skydive mode, handles are completely exposed at the chest and easy to access.
Leading Edge
Leading edge construction is a complicated matter in wingsuit design. Performance can undoubtedly be enhanced by creating a rigid structure over the arm, but this results in a significant reduction in passive safety. Overly flexible designs can result in lost performance, and even profile deformation. We have focused on this part of our wingsuits since the beginning of our development, and we believe we have found the perfect solution in our three-layer leading edge design. The exterior layer is finished in Glideskin, a highly flexible and durable material which yields a very smooth surface when gently stretched. The middle layer is a static, non-flexible air-mesh material which is sized wider than the Glideskin. This air-mesh panel does not stretch, and does not allow profile deformation. The interior is finished in Lycra, which provides a smooth surface for skin or clothing to slide across, and houses the leading edge foam. It is important to note that although the glideskin is stretched across your arm to form the smooth leading edge, the profile cannot deform thanks to the interior layer of static air-mesh. The only part of the leading edge which allows full flex is the first few centimeters of the wrist, for easy BOC and brake toggle access.
Planform
We have chosen to use a nearly identical stance and sweep to our other more advanced wingsuits, for several reasons. First of all, our goal is to create a seamless transition from our most basic to our most advanced wingsuits. When you transition from a Swift to a Colugo, or a Colugo to an Aura, the stance and sweep will feel instantly familiar, allowing an intuitive switch from suit to suit.
Profile
The Swift’s profile is taken from the Aura, and adapted to the Swift’s lower surface area and shorter chord. The thickness is similar to the Colugo, and was chosen for stable trim flight and good stability across a wide range of angles of attack.
Features
We believe that all performance-enhancing features in a wingsuit should be standard. If it’s important to performance flying, then it’s included in the price of your suit. Foam padded foot cavities, chest pocket / belly-cam access, internal pressure-zips, nut-sack storage compartment, mylar reinforced leading edge, and rubber Base soles are all standard features in all of our suits.
Access
In Base and Skydiving, easy BOC and brake toggle access has proven to yield the safest and most reliable deployments. We firmly believe in the mantra, ‘Keep it Simple and Safe’. For that reason, we designed a suit for which cutaways are totally unnecessary, BOC access is of unparalleled ease, and brake toggles can be reached with little effort in any situation. An incredibly simple arced cut at the wrist makes it even easier to both reach your PC at pull time, and your toggles during opening. This basic innovation is an improvement to any wingsuit and makes the BOC pull safe and intuitive. The arm sweep, wrist-cut, and leading edge construction have all been engineered for what we think is a perfect balance of safety and performance.
Performance
The Swift features excellent glide performance for its surface area, but our main focus was ease of use and versatility. The Swift’s high arm sweep and arced wrist cut make deployment easier and safer than any other suit we have flown, and the suit can even be ‘flown’ in an arched box-man position if needed. The arm wing surface area extends to the waist for glide range, but the arm wing top surface is well clear of the BOC area for easy access.
Competition Update
You may remember the Squirrel Suit Competition to guess the number of stitches on the front of the Swift suit. With a guess of 3,902 stitches, Eliza Alexandra, of Romania, comes closest to the 14,021 stitches on the suit – congratulations, Eliza! She’ll receive a brand-new, custom-made Swift and be joining Taya Weiss, Matt Gerdes and friends in Perris, California, in December, for an all-expenses-paid wingsuit adventure!
Contact
If you have questions about flying your Swift at any level of performance, please don’t hesitate to contact: Squirrel Suits
If any readers would like to review the Swift, please get in touch, we at Skydive Mag would love to hear from you.
