A winged stuntman has completed a daring 17km unaided flight over the west coast of Ireland, beating local plane times.

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A winged stuntman completed a daring 17km unaided flight over the west coast of Ireland, beating local plane times.

World renowned Swiss wingsuit flyer Ueli ‘Sputnik’ Gegenschatz, who recently base jumped from the world famous Eiffel Tower in Paris, travelled to the west coast of Ireland over the Bank Holiday weekend to compete the unique project.

In order to complete the distance, ‘Sputnik’ needed to exit his skydiving aircraft at an altitude of 4,500 metres. He flew across the Atlantic waters at an average speed of 250km/hr, with the aid of a strong tailwind.

‘Sputnik’ released his parachute 200 metres above the mainland before touching down on the runway at Connemara Regional Airport at a time of 5 mins 45 sec. 

He completed the journey in 5.45mins beating the average flight time by more than a minute.

BASE jumping is a sport involving the use of a parachute or the sequenced use of a wingsuit and parachute to jump from fixed objects--with the parachute unopened at the jump. "BASE" is an apronym that stands for the four categories of fixed objects from which one can jump:

    * Building

    * Antenna

    * Span

    * Earth

The acronym "BASE" was coined by film-maker Carl Boenish, his wife Jean Boenish, Phil Smith, and Phil Mayfield. Carl was the real catalyst behind modern BASE jumping, and in 1978 filmed the first BASE jumps (from El Capitan, in Yosemite National Park) to be made using ram-air parachutes and the freefall tracking technique. While BASE jumps had been made prior to that time, the El Capitan activity was the effective birth of what is now called BASE jumping. BASE jumping is significantly more dangerous than similar sports such as skydiving from aircraft, and is currently regarded by many as a fringe extreme sport or stunt