If you could have one superpower, what would it be? For many of us, the answer's the same: the ability to fly. According to Swiss birdman Yves Rossy, "It's a dream that's present in every spirit."

But flight is a dangerous dream to pursue. Like the story of Icarus – whose wings were held together with wax and so melted when he flew too close to the Sun – tales of birdmen often end in tragedy. One claimed that, out of about 75 birdmen who jumped out of planes at air shows between the 1930s and 1960s, only three survived.


Birdmen tested various parachutes and wings throughout the Middle Ages. Leonardo da Vinci, for instance, was obsessed with flight and may even have flown successfully – a modern reconstruction of his glider, based on 500-year-old drawings, succeeded in flying.

From feathers to carbon fibre, birdmen have tried various materials in wing designs. But after hundreds of years, it's only recently that technology has allowed them to safely fulfill their dreams.

Batmen begin

If flight is a superpower, then Clem Sohn was its first superhero. Although with arms and legs outstretched, he looked more like a flying squirrel than the first in a long line of batmen.


Sohn was an aerial daredevil, an expert in freefall and parachuting, and the world record holder for the highest jump from an airplane, at 18,500 feet. Needing a new challenge, he used his mother's sewing machine to fashion bat-like wings from sailcloth. The lightweight fabric stretched over a skeleton of steel tubes that radiated from his shoulders. Between his legs, a triangular tail acted as a stabiliser – a device many a medieval birdmen regretted not having added.