An unusual and adrenaline-filled challenge was carried out in Slovenia, where two wingsuited skydivers were launched at a speed of 180 km/h from a giant chimney, setting two Guinness world records.
Spaniard Dani Roman and Frenchman Fred Fugen performed this extreme test in the town of Trbovlje, using a giant catapult system built inside a 360-meter-high industrial chimney, considered the tallest in Europe. The special launch system, 60 meters long, catapulted the athletes vertically into the sky, accelerating them from 0 to 180 km/h in just 2.15 seconds.
After reaching the highest point of the trajectory, they experienced a moment of weightlessness before starting to fall towards the ground. They then opened their parachutes and landed safely. Dani Roman managed to set the first record for the highest altitude reached by a person launched by a human catapult. He rose 100.36 meters above the point of exit from the launch capsule. But the challenge did not end there. Roman, 35, and Fugen, 47, then attempted to perform the launch simultaneously, setting a second record for the highest combined altitude reached by two people using this system.
Together, they reached a height of 151.72 meters above the launch pad, with Roman rising 75.97 meters and Fugen 75.75 meters. Describing the experience, Roman said the most intense moment was standing inside the capsule, when the countdown had started and he could not move.
According to him, the pressure was felt on the back and abdomen, while at the moment of release the body accelerated within a few seconds to 180 km/h. He described this as one of the most intense jumps of his career. Behind this result lies a project that required two and a half years of work and technical development. The giant system was built by the Slovenian team DD Squad, specializing in acrobatics and engineering. At maximum power, the catapult exerted acceleration forces of up to 4.2 G on the athletes, turning the release into an extraordinary physical test.
For Fred Fugen, the biggest challenge was facing a completely unfamiliar experience, despite thousands of jumps he had made during his career. He stressed that such a launch could not be fully simulated through training and that trust in the technical team was essential to the realization of the project.
Roman and Fugen have made more than 32 parachute jumps together, making them among the most experienced athletes in extreme aerial disciplines. However, even for them, accelerating from a giant chimney at 180 km/h represented a previously untried challenge. After two new Guinness records, the adventure in Trbovlje marks another frontier crossed in extreme aerial sports.
