Watch (breathlessly) as Luke Aikins jumps from a height of 25,000 feet – without a parachute
With this jump over the California desert, the 42-year-old professional skydiver broke the world record.
Luke Aikins, a professional skydiver with an experience of over 18,000 jumps, doesn't like to do things the easy way. So, he decided to take a plane up 25,000 feet and then jump – without a parachute. Using the air currents around him, he steered himself in a manoeuvre that is appropriately titled "Heaven Sent".
Even watching Aikins free fall, knowing that he doesn't have the comfort of a parachute opening up at some point to let him drift gently back to earth, is an agonising experience. Even though you know the story has a happy ending, you wonder how he will keep himself from smashing into the ground under the force of gravity.
It turns out there's a 10,000 square foot net, called the trap, in which Aikins is supposed to land. But seen though the camera in his head, Lukecam, it's a tiny spot. What if he misses?
Of course, Aikins doesn't miss, and you – along with all the spectators who were actually watching on the ground, his wife among them – can breathe a sigh of relief eventually.
During his jump Aikins went from 0 to 150mph in a few seconds, completing his free-fall dive over the California desert in two minutes. The daredevil, who is a safety and training advisor the United States Parachute Institution claims to have been jumping since he was 16.
Just in case this wasn't high enough for you, here's Felix Baumgartner's jump from 39 km above from the surface of the Earth – from space, no less. He did use a parachute, though.
Baumgartner's 2012 record was broken two years later by Alan Eustace, who took a 41-km-long dive.
