UK inventor Richard Browning has successfully flown his record-breaking jet-powered suit up Europe’s longest zip wire at speeds of almost 100km/h.
Self-styled “real-life Iron Man” Browning – who is founder and chief test pilot at Gravity industries – said that the mile-long zip wire, at the Zip World theme park in North Wales, offered a great opportunity to further explore the speed, stability and acceleration of the jet suit.
In collaboration with the team at Zip World and local partner ISC, Browning built a safety device to enable him to fly at potential speeds in excess of 100 mph.
Last year (2017) Browning – a former royal marine reservist – set a world record for the fastest speed in a jet engine powered suit when he achieved a speed of 32.02mph (51.53km/h) over a lake at Lagoona Park in Reading.
As previously reported by The Engineer, Browning’s Daedulus suit is made up of four miniaturised arm-mounted gas turbine engines and two hip-mounted versions each providing 22kg of thrust and providing enough lift to enable the wearer to fly.

Controlled by the pilot’s body movement, the suit is Wi-Fi enabled and includes a Heads-Up Display that can highlight key safety and performance indicators, including fuel levels and engine operation. It also allows live data streaming from the suit for ground monitoring and the HUD system.
Commenting on the latest tests Browning said: “Since we achieved the Guinness World Records title we continue to be on an aggressive research and development journey to explore the high-speed stability of the Gravity Jet Suit.” Said Browning. “The team were excited to push the boundaries of speed with the support of Zip World and ISC as we discover even more potential in this exciting exploration into human flight.”
I wonder if he’s thought of pairing the jets with a parachutist’s wing-suit.
Seems good fun.
Are they available on Amazon?
Give ’em a few years and Amazon will be using it for deliveries.
Looks like EasyJet & Ryanair could be in for a run for their money soon.
Maybe Chris, but the Baggage will still cost extra!
Fabulous engineering, and a great toy that I would love to try, but …
a) he seems to be hanging from the rope, and not just using it as a safety cable – is this “flying”?, and
b) “Zip World” suggest a top speed of 125 mph. He’s going slower than merely using gravity.
Ans b: It looks like he is going UP the zip wire not down.
Maybe … was going mainly by the picture, where it looks like, and says, he is going down the zipwire. Also, at 48 secs or so, he definitely looks like he’s going down.
I agree it would be odd for him to set the “record” going down the zip wire.
Calling the equipment “Daedulus” seems asking for trouble after what happened in the story………….still, I daresay that we are using a better grade of wax
Daedelus got away fine. We just hope he doesn’t let his son have a go.
I think he’s travelling up-hill rather than down!