Risky action

Daredevil! Skydivers flew through Tower Bridge

The flight through the London landmark.

(Bild: Mihai Stetcu / Red Bull Content Pool)

Two young Austrian skydivers have pulled off a spectacular stunt in London. Marco Fürst and Marco Waltenspiel proved once again on Sunday that there are no limits to the extremes they can go to with the crazy "Wings Through Tower Bridge" project.

With nothing but a nylon suit with sewn-in wings through the air, top speeds that would make sports cars pale in comparison. It is one of, if not the most dangerous sport in the world: wingsuit flying. Even under "normal circumstances". There is probably no scale for what the duo from Vorarlberg and Salzburg, Fürst and Waltenspiel, did on Sunday morning in London.

Approaching London.

(Bild: Peter Salzmann / Red Bull Content Pool)

The two Austrians got ready.

(Bild: Peter Salzmann / Red Bull Content Pool)

(Bild: Joerg Mitter / Red Bull Content Pool)

(Bild: DOMINIK ANGERER / RED BULL CONTE)

(Bild: Dominik Angerer / Red Bull Content Pool)

Everyone on the Thames held their breath for a few seconds as the two Austrians sped towards Tower Bridge at around 250 km/h at 5.22 a.m. local time. After jumping out of the helicopter at a height of 914 meters, which is about ten times the height of Big Ben, the exceptional athletes glided through the gap between the two towers of the iconic bridge. With a height of 43 meters and a width of 61 meters, it may seem quite generous, but at a speed far beyond the local freeway limits, it probably looks more like a kitchen window. "To reach the necessary speed, we have to fly towards it at an extremely steep angle. The hole doesn't seem so big any more relatively quickly," said Waltenspiel, explaining the maneuver.

With a height of 43 meters and a width of 61 meters, it may seem quite generous, but at a speed far beyond the local freeway limits, it looks more like a kitchen window. "To reach the necessary speed, we have to fly towards it at an extremely steep angle. The hole doesn't seem so big any more relatively quickly," said Waltenspiel, explaining the maneuver.

Wrong landing with the right ending
But getting through was just the beginning. The next step was to reach an altitude of around 80 meters in order to open the parachute. Coordinated from the ground by the third member of the team, German Max Manow, Waltenspiel landed as planned just 45 seconds after leaving the helicopter on the platform provided, while Fürst found out more about the temperature of the Thames.

"It was mega fine, actually!" he laughed again in a dry voice, "It would have been a close call for me, so I opted for the water landing. We were already prepared for this option, I had a wetsuit on under the wingsuit."

Marco Fürst and Marco Waltenspiel

(Bild: Joerg Mitter / Red Bull Content Pool)

Speaking of preparation: it was in full swing, and had been for around two years. After an estimated 200 training jumps, they were certain: "We know we'll make it!" Of course, they had made provisions for the worst-case scenario. "In the air, we are in contact by radio, we have agreed on an altitude at which the call must come at the latest for us to abort."

There was also no need to worry about finding themselves in an Airbus turbine on the way to nearby London City Airport, as the airspace had been cleared. But there's never absolute certainty in the sport: "All it takes is some Sunday flyer or someone showing up with their drone at the wrong moment. Then we have very little time to react," Waltenspiel was well aware of the life-threatening situation.

World premiere in the anniversary year
For Red Bull, after the spectacle is before the spectacle. The wingsuiters from the Red Bull Skydive Team's next project is already in the pipeline, but they didn't want to reveal any details just yet. However, the London event was definitely a career highlight for both of them, even after sharing the experience of over 20,000 jumps to mark the team's tenth anniversary. "We'll always look back on it and say: 'That was incredibly cool'," they said proudly.

And rightly so. After all, it was also the first time that such a flight had been attempted and successfully completed at Tower Bridge. This is not necessarily surprising: Who else but Marco Fürst and Marco Waltenspiel would even come up with the idea.