LIBERTY TOWNSHIP, Ohio — You don’t have to jump out of a plane to go skydiving anymore. One place is getting families in the air through a wind tunnel and now they're using it to teach kids about science. 

What You Need To Know

  • iFly indoor skydiving is running a STEM program for kids to learn the science behind getting someone in the air through a wind tunnel

  • Educators show kids how the wind is forced around the building and under it to create forces fast enough to push someone up

  • Kids calculate how much wind it will take to fly someone based on height and weight and then put their prediction to the test

Twelve year old Cameron Ford has never been skydiving before until now. He’s about to fly.

“Just looking at the tube, it just looks scary,” he said.

His mom, Jessica Ford, is following right behind, getting ready to be blown straight up into the air through a wind tunnel.

“I’m a little bit nervous about the spinning,” she said. 

Despite the jitters, his mom says she wanted this to happen.

“I think their program is fantastic," she said. "It was very educational for the boys."

Ford and her sons are a part of a Boy Scouts group. They’re on a field trip at iFly indoor skydiving in Liberty Township near Cincinnati, and they’re not just flying around.

Erica Ross is an educator through iFly’s STEM program. She’s teaching the science behind how they get people to fly with fans in the ceiling.

“We put the fans at the top, then there’s a long time for that air to smooth out because it gets to go here (from the top), here (around the sides of the building), and up through the tunnel,” said Ross.

She said kids then get to calculate how much air it takes to fly a person based on their height and weight and then put their calculations and predictions to the test. Some were flying with wind speeds over 100 miles an hour, while the driver controls the air. 

It's a science lesson the Fords said they’ll never forget.