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This Man Will Jump Out of a Plane With No Parachute
National Geographic ^ | PUBLISHED JULY 29, 2016 | By Andrew Bisharat

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 ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: darwinaward; skydiver
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To: granite
One thousand gossamer kite tails trailing after him to add drag?

A time travel device to stretch the moment before impact into infinity?

A flubber jumpsuit (that should speak for itself)?

41 posted on 07/30/2016 3:16:17 PM PDT by higgmeister ( In the Shadow of The Big Chicken! - vote Trump 2016)
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To: trisham

Yeah. Not every kid gets to say they saw their father’s brains on the ground.

Idiot. THIS is child abuse.


42 posted on 07/30/2016 3:18:38 PM PDT by dp0622 (The only thing an upper crust conservative hates more than a liberal is a middle class conservative)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

Cessna 208 Caravan


43 posted on 07/30/2016 3:19:32 PM PDT by al baby (Hi Mom)
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To: M Kehoe

ROFL!!!!! never heard that expression before!!!


44 posted on 07/30/2016 3:19:48 PM PDT by dp0622 (The only thing an upper crust conservative hates more than a liberal is a middle class conservative)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

Turbo 210


45 posted on 07/30/2016 3:20:27 PM PDT by CFIIIMEIATP737
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To: SamAdams76

“Missed it by THAT MUCH”


46 posted on 07/30/2016 3:20:32 PM PDT by dp0622 (The only thing an upper crust conservative hates more than a liberal is a middle class conservative)
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To: granite

I hear TV coverage will be delayed because, well, just in case...


47 posted on 07/30/2016 3:20:33 PM PDT by Libloather (Embrace the suck.)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

I don’t know what’s going on. Is this some kind of weird suicidal ploy? Are these two parents insane? I don’t get it.


48 posted on 07/30/2016 3:21:09 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: dp0622

Naw.... its not like making a kid stand on the pavement in Arizona in bare feet


49 posted on 07/30/2016 3:21:42 PM PDT by al baby (Hi Mom)
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To: trisham

Did you see the guy not long ago using a wingsuit land on a pile of cardboard boxes without using his parachute? This is to one up that stunt.

Perspective of landing from above taken by another skydiver using a wing suit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEP8juRSBRo

From the ground.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jiy6YvaDmlY

There is a race on to be the first to land without a parachute using a wingsuit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsztEWuC3cs


50 posted on 07/30/2016 3:21:57 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: dp0622

Agreed. If this man dies, in such a horrible way, his son will be scarred for life.


51 posted on 07/30/2016 3:22:15 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: granite
With him will be a GPS, a communication device, and an oxygen tank.

I hope he didn't purchase his equipment from ACME Corporation.

52 posted on 07/30/2016 3:22:49 PM PDT by GreenHornet
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To: BenLurkin

Hey - it could happen (Lol!!!)


53 posted on 07/30/2016 3:24:38 PM PDT by 11th_VA (It's all gonna change once Trump's president)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

No, I hadn’t seen that.


54 posted on 07/30/2016 3:24:53 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: Nita Nupress

The jump over Snake River in Idaho with a new Sky Cycle is going to happen on 17SEP2017. It’s called the ‘Return To Snake River.’

Stuntman to attempt Knievel’s launch over Snake River Canyon
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2016/07/20/stuntman-to-attempt-knievel-launch-over-snake-river-canyon/

Eddie Braun, stuntman, plans to attempt Evel Knievel’s failed Snake River Canyon jump
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jul/20/eddie-braun-stuntman-plans-to-attempt-evel-knievel/


55 posted on 07/30/2016 3:25:37 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: SamAdams76

I hope those cranes are equipped with yellow rubber tips on the booms.


56 posted on 07/30/2016 3:27:37 PM PDT by NewHampshireDuo
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To: Cementjungle

LOL


57 posted on 07/30/2016 3:28:18 PM PDT by windcliff
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To: GreenHornet

58 posted on 07/30/2016 3:28:37 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: Pelham

“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.”

This actually makes some sense, but it is still extremely dangerous and risky. A gust of wind could push him off course, off the net.


59 posted on 07/30/2016 3:32:25 PM PDT by Innovative ("Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." -- Vince Lombardi)
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To: volunbeer

I doubt if there’s a life insurance company in the world that will cover him for this stunt, so if anything goes wrong, his wife and son will be without support.

I know I had to give up sky diving and scuba diving many years ago when the life insurance premiums to cover such things became unaffordable.


60 posted on 07/30/2016 3:32:59 PM PDT by DJ Taylor (Once again our country is at war, and once again the Democrats have sided with our enemy.)
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