A British scientist, who sought to set world records in a wingsuit, has died in a base-jumping accident in Saudi Arabia.
University of Southampton astronautical engineer Dr. Angelo Grubisic lost his life Tuesday in a planned jump, reported BBC News.
Grubisic, who won a British wingsuit title in July, was the leader of a wingsuit design team at Southampton.
He also previously had worked on a spacecraft-propulsion project for NASA and the European Space Agency, and was a consulting engineer for a 2018 mission to Mercury.
The university said he was a specialist in the development and testing of advanced propulsion systems, reported The Sun.
“Angelo lost his life doing what he loved most — wingsuit base jumping,” Grubisic’s family said in a statement. “And we want to ensure his achievements and ambitions are known to the world and to celebrate the mark he made on all of our lives.”
In 2015, Grubisic created the Icarus Project, the goal of which was designing a wingsuit capable of breaking world records while improving safety.
Base jumping is an extreme sport combining skydiving and hang gliding that involves leaping from planes or high-altitude objects, such as buildings or buttes, and gliding in a specially designed suit with webbed surfaces, which help prevents divers from free-falling.
Under the Icarus Project, the professor wanted to try to fly faster, higher and further than any other person.
“'The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long’ has never rang more true to the family and friends Angelo had across the world,” said his family.
Grubisic reportedly had executed hundreds of successful jumps.
He told Ontario Tech University that his goal was to jump from more than 40,000 feet high and set records for greatest speed traveled in a wingsuit and longest wingsuit flight.
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