Historic wingsuit flight through London Tower Bridge: How it was done
Marco Fürst and Marco Waltenspiel became the first people to wingsuit through London's defining landmark – and at an astonishing 246kph. This is how they achieved the incredible world-first.
In an amazing display of precision flying, Marco Fürst and Marco Waltenspiel have become the first wingsuiters ever to pass through London's famous Tower Bridge.
Marco Fürst and Marco Waltenspiel prepare leap into the London skyline
The Austrian freefall skydiving pioneers leapt from a helicopter west of the landmark on May 12 at 5.22am BST. Just 45 seconds later, the pair travelled 1,200m and landed safely on barges in the middle of the River Thames. Canon captured all of the light-speed action with 24 cameras in 14 different positions around Tower Bridge.
Marco Fürst and Marco Waltenspiel did 200 training jumps before the big day
Dropping from a height of 914m, 1.2km west of the bridge, they reached speeds in excess of 246kph as they passed through the 65m x 32m ‘window’ between the iconic towers.
Making Tower Bridge's window meant absolute precision from a 900m descent
Once they passed through the bridge at a height of around 30m, the pair pulled a 'flare' manoeuvre, climbing rapidly to around 85m in order to pull their parachutes for a safe landing in the River Thames.
I’m really grateful to work with Marco and such a good team to bring our dream to life
"I’m really grateful to work with Marco and such a good team to bring our dream to life," said Fürst. "I just feel amazing. The jump was beautiful and everything worked out really good. In the last two and a half years we planned everything through and had the best preparation and training"
Over a year's prep led up to the incredible Tower Bridge flight
It’s just insane to get this opportunity to fly through such a unique landmark - you see action like this in films, but to actually do it ourselves is amazing
The flight marked the culmination of more than a year's worth of hard work, with preparations for the flight beginning in July 2022. Once planning was complete, the Marcos moved to a training ground in Oxfordshire in April 2023, where they recreated the dimensions of Tower Bridge by flying between two carefully positioned cranes.
These whopping 200 practice flights helped them define the specifics of the project, including that the optimum height to drop from would be 914m.
Altitude: the Marcos' training revealed 914m was the optimum drop height
The morning’s conditions needed to be perfect to ensure a safe flight.
The 914m altitude, combined with a drop point exactly 1.12km from the bridge, enabled them to get precisely the right speed and angle of descent.
Their thin-profile ‘squirrel suits’ are made of ripstop nylon, and provide the experience fliers with 3m of horizontal travel for every 1m of altitude lost.
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Navigating the narrow Tower Bridge window and land on the River Thames
Tower Bridge target: the opening in the bridge is 61m wide by 58m high
On passing safely through the bridge, the pair then rose into a steep climb called a ‘flare’, in order to slow down and get enough altitude to safely pull their parachutes for landing.
This flare took them rapidly from an altitude of 35m, to a height of 80m, and was one of the lowest above sea level ever completed by wingsuiters.
Apart from the obvious challenges of precision flying, the Marcos were concerned with their safety when it came to landing on designated barges in the River Thames.
"One of the main dangers on this flight was the water. We are very happy to have avoided the Thames, because it's super cold and very fast-moving. We would never have attempted this flight without special water safety training and support boats on standby," says Fürst.
