The Oredigger goes flying with iFly Denver!

On Friday, October 17, three Oredigger staff members were invited to the Grand Reopening of iFly Denve. Our paper sent three staff members: Connor McDonald (top right), Ronald Kem (middle left), and Lucy Orsi (middle right). At the event, each of our representatives suited up and jumped into their wind tunnel to give indoor sky diving a try!
iFly Denver, formerly known as Skyventure Colorado, is one of 32 iFly facilities operating around the globe. iFly Holdings is based in Austin, Texas and leads the world in the manufacturing, sales and operations of wind tunnel systems for recreational indoor sky-diving, competitive skydiver training and military training. iFly has successfully flown over 6 million flyers.

Indoor sky-diving is made possible by a vertical wind tunnel. This technology was originally used by the military and professional skydivers for training. Four powerful, high-efficiency axial fans are mounted at the top of the building, channeling air down the side tunnels into the basement, and then up through the floor of the 12-foot-wide circular flight chamber, creating a strong upward draft. This upward draft, which ranges in speed from approximately 80 to 175 miles per hour (depending on the weight and expertise level of the flyer,) creates a stable, wall-to-wall airflow that pushes guests aloft and makes it possible for them to fly.
In addition to competitive and recreational sky diving, iFly markets their facilities to educational providers. The company thinks that giving kids a chance to experience the thrill of skydiving in a safe and controlled environment will help get them interested in all of the science and technology behind the wind tunnel.
In fact, a class of students was actually at iFly Denver’s grand reopening event. After the students got a chance to fly in the tunnel, their teacher taught a lesson about terminal velocity. To help the students visualize the concepts, iFly divers adjusted the speed of the air in the tunnel in order to float different objects. These objects included a bottle of water which iFly’s divers subsequently queezed in order to show how water droplets behaved in the tunnel.
iFly Denver is located in Lone Star Colorado and can be reached at (303)-768-9000.