On Saturday, July 30th, Luke Aikins is going to wake up, do a couple stretches, crush a red bull (or even more boldly, chew some Stride gum), and drive to the local dropzone. He’ll wait in some ready room, standing by to zip up his jump suit, check his helmet and visor, and board some dual-prop aircraft. He might even shut his eyes for 30 seconds while he envisions leaving the aircraft, catching the hill, and picking up the DZ while hurtling towards Earth. What he won’t be doing, however, is pin checks. Or a JMPI. Or even making sure he brings his parachute from the house to the DZ. That’s because he is going to jump, on live television, with NO PARACHUTE and NO WINGSUIT. His plan is to land in a 100 sq ft net after jumping from 25k.
Most of us have envisioned this happening- calmly freefalling from an aircraft with our buddies to our left and right, casually waving off at 5k or so. Then, when we reach for our ripcord, it’s not there. Neither is our cutaway pillow or our reserve handle. That’s cause we are freefalling with no chute. We attempt to aim for some hay-filled roofless barn, or even a local styrofoam plant overflow area, but can’t quite get to it before…. well, you know. And we all have woken up from that nightmare, sweating, panting. For the first time in history, Aikins is gonna do this on purpose. And he is aiming for a 10′ x 10′ net. Talk about commitment.
You can read more about the stunt here, on Gizmag.
You can watch the stunt live Saturday, July 30th, likely with a slight time delay, on FOX from 8-9pm EST.
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