For hundreds of years, fully grown adults and very young children have dreamed about flying. Now, a small group of extreme sportsmen wearing specially made wingsuits have come about as close to flying as you can get outside the confines of an airplane, at least for a minute or two.
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The wingsuit allows its wearer to stay aloft three times as long as a skydiver.
Credit: CBS/Coleman Cowan
The 60 Minutes team and correspondent Steve Kroft traveled to Norway to see this spectacle for themselves.
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There is no better time or place than the Romsdal valley of Norway during the summer solstice, a paradise of fjords and farms several hundred miles northwest of Oslo.
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Myth has it that Norway's trolls live here amidst the waterfalls and some of the tallest sheerest cliffs in Europe.
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Norwegians have been parachuting off them for decades. Birdmen take the extreme sport to new extremes, dropping off a cliff and free falling until the air inflates the wings of their nylon suits and propels them forward.
Credit: CBS/Coleman Cowan
Credit: CBS/Coleman Cowan
Near the end of our stay, we chartered a helicopter for the biggest adventure of our visit. We were going to the top of one of the most famous mountains in Norway, Romsdalshorn.
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It was early summer, but we were a mile above the valley floor and the temperature was just above freezing.
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A key part of the process is, of course, suiting up.
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They had a pre-flight checklist: making sure their zippers were closed, parachutes well-packed, and there were no rips in their wingsuits.
Credit: CBS/Coleman Cowan
Credit: CBS
Ready...
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...set...
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...go!
Credit: CBS/Coleman Cowan
Credit: CBS/Coleman Cowan
Left behind was our cameraman, capturing the plunge off the cliff.
Credit: CBS/Coleman Cowan
Credit: CBS/Coleman Cowan
Credit: CBS/Coleman Cowan
60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft, with producer Tom Anderson.
