What's our story? Well, the shortest possible answer is, "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself."

Here's a bit more detail: We had been discussing the idea of creating our own wingsuit design for several years, but this idea gained momentum during the summer of 2011. The initial plan was not to produce suits to sell to the public, but make just a few custom suits for ourselves to fly; our dream was to have exactly what we wanted, without having to ask anyone else to make it.

In early 2012, we secured production capacity in the Ozone Paragliders Workshop and suddenly had the possibility to produce wingsuits for more than just ourselves. Since then, we have been through a whirlwind of progress and design progression. We have experimented with a wide range of possible designs, from complex rigid wings with expanding cutaway sleeves to the most basic constructions of nylon and thread. We have pursued designs that focused purely on glide performance, and designs with only comfort and ease of use as the end goal. Luc Armant, a fluid dynamics expert and a designer for Ozone Paragliders, has driven our profile / planform development and we have made prototypes with a wide range of profiles of varying camber and thicknesses.

The overriding lesson for us during this development has been that by far the most important design parameter is safety. For us, approaching the design table with anything else in the forefront of our minds is not an option. The key points for every design we make are: cleanest pull possible, most dependable wing pressurization, and the most stable and "balanced" trim flight. Glide and speed, while very important to us, are secondary and we believe that no performance advantage is worth dying for.

Our first suit, the Colugo (google it if you want to know what it means), is our all-mountain terrain flyer for pilots of intermediate to expert ability - pilots who want to carve the terrain and fly the most aggressive lines will love the agility and power of the Colugo. Other models will follow shortly; the Aura, our "big" suit, will satisfy pilots for whom maximum glide is the priority, and our beginner suit, meant for your first flights, will be coming soon. Anyway, that's enough for now, stay tuned for more info.

Cheers, from Matt and all the Squirrel Team.