It is with great sadness that we share the news of Dr Angelo Niko Grubisic’s tragic death.
Dr Angelo N Grubisic (38), a pioneer in wingsuit technology, died when he was taking part in a planned jump in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
Our branch was fortunate to host Angelo in December 2018 at MoD Boscombe Down for our annual joint lecture with the IET & IMechE where he delivered a riveting lecture about his work on the Icarus Wing Suit to a packed audience. Angleo spent many years designing and testing performance wingsuits in order to improve the safety and aerodynamic qualities used in base-jumping and other extreme sports. He was seen as a world-leading pioneer in the field of wingsuit design and inspired many of those who got to know him through various events and lectures including the students that he lectured at the University of Southampton.
Angelo was a Consultant AIT and Systems Engineer for QinetiQ, responsible for the development of the T6 Solar Electric Propulsion System on the +£1.1bn European Space Agency BepiColumbo Mission to Mercury. He also worked with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, ESA and was Gravity Industries’ director of Flight Training as well as being a revered lecturer at the University of Southampton.
Our thoughts and condolences go out to Angelo’s family, friends and colleagues at the University of Southampton, NASA, ESA, QinetiQ, the wingsuit base-jumping community across the world.
In a statement to the BBC, his family said: ‘Angelo lost his life doing what he loved the most, wingsuit base jumping, and we want to ensure his achievements and ambitions are known to the world and to celebrate the mark he made on all of our lives.’
Dr Angelo Niko Grubisic Lecturer
The Icarus Project
Gravity Industries
ESA BepiColumbo
QinetiQ BepiColumbo
NASA JPL