Touching the Sky VR film stars Aaron Durogati

A new immersive virtual reality film starring Aaron Durogati paragliding in the Karakoram is launching this week.

Touching the Sky “takes the viewer on a voyage of human powered flight like never before” according to pre-release publicity, as it follows “wingsuit base jumpers in the European Alps, and a paragliding team across the Himalayas in Pakistan.”

Starring Red Bull X-Alps winner Aaron and wingsuit pilot Fred Fugen the film has been in production for over two years and will be released on Thursday 31 July, according to a blog post on Meta.com.

Designed to be watched using a 3D 360-degree Meta Quest headset the film aims to introduce non-pilots into the “world of human-powered flight.”

“From BASE jumping and wingsuit flying to speed riding and long-distance paragliding, these sports aren’t for the faint of heart,” reports Meta. “The experience is exhilarating, breath-taking, and not easily shared. Until now.”

They add: “Launching 31 July on Meta Quest TV, Touching the Sky VR lets you soar through the skies across the Alps and the Karakoram Himalaya with Red Bull Adventure athletes Aaron Durogati and Fred Fugen.”

Because of the way the filming is done, the viewer puts the headset on and then gets a pilot’s eye view of what is happening – as if they are sitting in the same harness as Aaron flies at 7,000m through the Karakoram.

The film involved two years of pre-production and one year of filming by filmmaker, photographer, and alpinist Jonathan Griffith – the same man who was behind the camera for Alex Honnold: The Soloist VR and Everest VR: Journey to the Top of the World.

The fim is a joint production between Meta Quest, a division of Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram) and Red Bull Media House. A 30-minute ‘Making of…’ film has also been released.

Watch a clip in 2D and see the ‘Making of…’ film on Red Bull’s website – and look out for it hitting social media soon.