A flier leaps from the Tianmen Mountain during the final competition of the third Wingsuit World Flying Contest held in Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie sightseeing spot of Central China's Hunan province on October 19, 2014. (Photo: China News Service/Yang Huafeng)
Chinese wingsuiter Zhang Shupeng is to challenge the 8100-meter fly without wearing a oxygen mask on Saturday.
If the 29-year-old can make it, he will set a new height record in the the extreme sport of wingsuit fly.
Zhang, "entitled No. 1 wingsuiter in Asia", is a paraglider in China before he falls in love with wingsuit fly. Since 2004, Zhang has won the national parachute gliding championship ten times and won the paragliding world championship point title in 2009.
Zhang is fascinated with the sport since the moment he saw a wingsuit flying video online. "When I watched the wingsuit fly on internet for the first time, I found it so exciting, so challenging. The sport really lands in China in 2011 when American Jeb Chris flied through the Tianmen Mountain Cave in Hunan's Zhang Jiajie. Since then, I decided to try it myself," Zhang recalled why he turned to the sport.
Zhang is enrolled with the United States parachute association in 2013 and finished his parachute courses soon. On March of 2013, Zhang was issued a wingsuit pilot certificate by a Europe wingsuit fly organiztion.
Zhang's best try is 6800 meters taken last year in Arizona. The wingsuit fly record is kept by Swiss Remo Lang set last year in a height of 8000 meters with no oxygen.
Wingsuit flying was first seen in the 1990s, and has been taken as an extreme sport with highest risk. Less than 600 people in the world have attempted it.
