Wing Man

Year ago U. S. newspicture editors were astonished to receive from Germany what purported to be the photograph of a man flying under his own power by blowing into a box which supposedly actuated rotors strapped to his chest. He wore skis for landing gear, was shown just after the take-off with his friends trotting behind. The picture--as most editors learned too late--was a hoax concocted by the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung for its annual April Fool issue (TIME, April 23).

Not until last week had any man actually flown under his own power with wings. That man was Clem Sohn, 23-year-old professional parachute jumper of Lansing, Mich. Strictly speaking, his adventure was not so much a flight as a sustained fall. Yet fly he did, on homemade wings, and landed on his feet to tell about it.

Sohn got the idea for his flight three years ago when he began experimenting with body control in delayed-drop parachute jumps. He found that by "swimming" in air he could move 200 to 300 ft. in any direction before jerking his ripcord.

"If I had something to check my drop," said he, "I believe I could move through the air almost at will."

"You ought to sprout wings," piped a friend.

"I will," declared Sohn. He studied flying-squirrels and bats, compared his findings with glider principles, began working on a set of wings in his spare time while traveling with an air circus. Few weeks ago he completed his flying-gear, went to Daytona Beach to await ideal weather. His apparatus was made of airplane fabric and metal tubing, weighed only eight pounds. A web-like tail fin was sewed between the legs of his flying suit. His wings, more like a bat's than a bird's, were fastened to the arms and sides of his suit.

Last week Clem Sohn went up in a plane, jumped at 12,000 ft. After a sheer drop of 2,000 ft. he spread his arms and legs, felt the air sustain him. Like a spread-eagled bat he slanted steeply downward, getting the "feel" of his wings. Bending his knees experimentally, he whipped over in an inside loop. Then he zoomed left & right, leveled off, dived, pulled up in a short climb. Satisfied he had succeeded in his experiment, he folded his wings, pulled the ripcord of his regular parachute at 6,000 ft., landed some three miles from his starting point. His flight had lasted 75 seconds. Next time he will use bigger wings, fasten a tank of smoke-producing chemicals to one leg so spectators can follow his course.

For the present, Jumper Sohn will confine his new technique to leaps from airplanes. Said he last week: "House tops are out. That's where Darius Green* was nuts--and he cracked up. I'm going at this thing in a sane way."

For newsreel pictures of himself on the wing. Flyer Sohn is asking $300.

*Hero of a ballad, Darius Green and His Flying Machine, by John Townsend Trowbridge (1878--1916). Farmboy Green, 14, eager to fly, built homemade wings, jumped from a rooftop, landed unhappily.

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