(Paris) Known for his multiple aerial exploits, Fred Fugen, from the Soul Flyers group, and his sidekick Vincent Cotte managed to fly in a wingsuit (winged suit) near the pyramids of Giza (Egypt) until they brushed against that of Khafre, for a trip reaching 250 km / h.
Dropped from a plane at an altitude of 1,500 m, Fugen and Cotte sped at full speed on the pyramids built more than four thousand years ago to pass around, grazing that of Khafre which rises to some 140 meters above the ground.
“It’s super impressive,” Fugen told AFP. “We are extremely focused throughout the approach and as we pass, it’s an explosion of joy. What is really impressive is that we feel very small. We realize the size of this construction, we can distinguish the size of each block. We are midges! It was awesome! ”
The video project was made possible by an Egyptian parachuting school, Skydive Egypt, which enabled the team to obtain all clearances.
In total, eight jumps were necessary to provide a one-minute video in which we see the two men pass on either side of the pyramids and then on the same side, before opening their parachutes to land on the ground.
This flight as close as possible to the monuments was made possible thanks to a technique developed by Fugen and Vince Reffet (who died a year ago), called “the resource”.
“It allows you to go back up. In a wingsuit, since you don’t have an engine, you experience gravity, you’re going down all the time. The resource makes it possible to pass very close to the ground, to ascend and to open the parachute in complete safety, ”explains Fugen.
Fugen and Reffet had inaugurated this technique during a flight near a lighthouse. Fugen used this mode last May to fly over the Sacred Cedars of Lebanon, skimming the tops.
“There is one place I would like to fly, it’s the Eiffel Tower. Flying over Paris and next to the Eiffel Tower and landing on the Champs de Mars, it’s an absolute dream, something that we have had in mind for a long time with Vince ”, projects Fugen, who with his friend, has signed incredible performances such as getting into a flying plane or even flying a wingsuit with the Patrouille de France.