It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no wait, it’s YOU flying through the sky on the SkyWire in England. The Eden Project’s SkyWire, England’s longest zip wire, is re-opening on Saturday May 18. It’s even more of thrill this time around – nearly twice as fast as before – zooming headfirst up to 60 mph!
With it’s new and improved speed, SkyWire is not only the fastest but the longest zip wire in England. For perspective, you’ll be going nearly as fast as a cheetah at full speed!
It’s sounds scary, attached only to wire suspended more than three hundred feet in the air, but the SkyWire in England utilizes a high-tech harness (similar to the ones used in hang-gliding).
The harness is attached to the wire by a trolley on the pilot’s back. Then, you’re lifted on and off the wire by Eden’s specially trained team of SkyWire flight technicians.
The SkyWire offers a unique birds’-eye view over the spectacular architecture and lush landscape of the Eden Project. On a clear day, the flight also offers stunning views of St. Austell Bay. From our experience of doing this superman-style zipline before in Puerto Rico, it’s really like flying and Lauraine Maddox (in photo below) agrees.
Maddox, one of the Eden SkyWire test pilots featured on USA Today Travel, said: “Riding on the SkyWire with our new harnesses is the closest you can get to actually flying – short of sprouting wings and taking off, that is. What’s more, you’ll be soaring along at the same horizontal speed as a Peregrine Falcon, the quickest bird in the world. It’ll take your breath away.”
Win a Flight on SkyWire in Cornwall, England
The Eden Project is offering one lucky person the opportunity to become the first person outside the project’s dedicated test pilot corps to fly the SkyWire in this thrilling manner. To register for the drawing, visit www.edenproject.com/skywirecompetition. Of course, in order to win, you gotta be at SkyWire in Cornwall, England at 10am on Saturday May 18. Competition closes at midnight on Thursday May 16.
Tickets for SkyWire flights cost £10 (approx $15 USD) if you visit the Eden Project as well or £15 ($20 USD approx) if you just want to fly over it.
Love speed like we do? Check out our ride on a similar face-first zipline, like SkyWire in England, we did one in Puerto Rico called The BEAST in Toro Verde.
Photos courtesy of Eden Project. Photos by Matt Cardy/Getty Images.
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