Posted on 07/30/2016 2:50:28 PM PDT by granite
Picture of Luke Akins during a training run View Images Luke Aikins is training his body to be able to maneuver through the unpredictability of the wind. PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDY FARRINGTON By Andrew Bisharat PUBLISHED JULY 29, 2016 Luke Aikins, 42, has deployed a parachute around 18,000 times over the last two and a half decades of his skydiving and BASE jumping career. But this Saturday, he’s going to find out if he can get away without one.
After two years of training, planning, and preparation, Aikins plans to jump out of a Cessna airplane at 25,000 feet (7,620 meters). With him will be a GPS, a communication device, and an oxygen tank. What he won’t have is a parachute, a wingsuit, or anything else that might help him stop or slow his descent.
“My whole life has been about air, aviation, flying, jumping, all that stuff,” said Aikins, a third-generation skydiver, during a television interview with Q13 FOX, the network broadcasting Aikins’ stunt, with a five-second delay, on July 30 at 8 p.m. ET (National Geographic Partners is a part of Fox Network Groups). “I’m out here to show that there are ways to do things that people think are insane and aren’t able to be done.”
As a TV audience tunes in to witness the spectacle—dubbed Heaven Sent and billed by the corporate sponsor and producer, Stride Gum, as the “most dangerous stunt ever shown live”—Aikins’ friends and family, including his wife, herself a skydiving instructor, and their four-year-old son will be on location..
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalgeographic.com ...
What?? How?
“Using his GPS, he’ll attempt to square up to the center of a specialized 100-by-100-foot (30.5-by-30.5-meter) net, which Aikins says will stop his fall as softly as if you were to stand on a trampoline and merely drop onto your back.”
..what could possibly go wrong....
How thoughtful of him and his wife to allow their four year old son to be a part of this.
A genuine Darwin Award aspirant....
Anyone else think doing this kind of very extreme adrenaline junky stunt with a 4 year old kid to support and raise is a bit selfish?
This is beyond crazy.
I’m assuming the funeral will be “closed casket”.
CC
When is the funeral?
That’s for sure. There’s such a thing as getting too comfortable with risk.
This is disturbing. Mainly because i want to watch to see how he does it.
I guess every generation has its Houdini, Wallenda, and Knievel.
He’s going to use air brakes.
Words fail me.
For should he successfully perform this stunt, he'll be immediately looking for another stunt to top this one. Eventually, he will meet his fate.
Sorta. He’ll be doing terminal velocity but just before he hits the net a series of air cylinders will act on the net to slow him down. Or he’s going to end up as a slightly smaller splat inside the net rather than outside.
Memo to SpaceX:
Reusable rockets, and cheaper space flight, just got much closer.
Which I assume from up at 25,000 feet would be akin to trying to land on the head of pin. Buh-Bye.
He should wear a parachute in case he misses the net.
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