He’s going to free fall 25,000 feet into a net

[yuiyoshida]

Skydiver Luke Aikins did his first tandem jump when he was 12 and his first solo jump at 16. Photo: AP

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — He’s made 18,000 parachute jumps, helped train some of the world’s most elite skydivers, done some of the stunts for “Ironman 3.” But the plunge Luke Aikins knows he’ll be remembered for is the one he’s making without a parachute. Or a wingsuit.

Or anything, really, other than the clothes he’ll be wearing when he jumps out of an airplane at 25,000 feet this weekend, attempting to become the first person to land safely on the ground in a net.

The Fox network will broadcast the two-minute jump live at 8 p.m. EDT (5 p.m. PDT) Saturday as part of an hour-long TV special called “Heaven Sent.”

And, no, you don’t have to tell Aikins it sounds crazy. He knows that.

He said as much to his wife after a couple Hollywood guys looking to create the all-time-greatest reality TV stunt floated the idea by him a couple years ago.

more

http://nypost.com/2016/07/28/hes-going-to-free-fall-25000-feet-into-a-net/

[chollybocker]

1. His insurance rates must be astronomical.

[NanceGreggs]

2. Why do the words ...

... "Hey, ya'll - watch this!" immediately spring to mind?

[Warpy]

3. Hey, Bubba, hold my beer and watch this!

No matter what that net is made of, it's going to feel like concrete when he hits it.

If he misses it, at least it will be quick.

[tblue37]

35. Even water feels like concrete from a much less notable height! nt

[Demonaut]

4. can't fix stupid

I hope he makes it

[Binkie The Clown]

5. I was hoping this was a post about Trump, and that the net was just laid out flat on the ground. n/t

[lancer78]

6. If he pulls this off

It will make Evil Kneival look like a wimp.

[Doodley]

7. Where does reality TV end? This is pretty stupid.

[highprincipleswork]

8. I thought this was a post about Donald Trump.

[TeamPooka]

9. I'm in the SFV down the road from Simi so I hope he hits the net and misses my house.

But that's the craziest fucking thing I've ever heard.

[shraby]

10. That net will probably cut him up pretty bad at the speed he'll be going when he

hits it.
He'll look like minced meat and feel worse if he survives...unless he wears hard protective gear.

[Mister Ed]

16. His speed will be about 110 - 120 mph when he hits.

That's what skydivers call "terminal velocity". It's as fast as your air resistance will allow you to travel. I just hope it doesn't prove terminal for him.

The "net" will probably be a little more elaborate than what we're envisioning. But if the arresting gear of an aircraft carrier can safely halt a plane weighing several tons in a short space, then it must be possible to construct an arresting mechanism to halt a 180-lb man traveling at 120 mph.

[metalbot]

17. You can certainly halt a 180 pound guy at that speed

I'm fascinated to see how they do it without killing him.

[randome]

18. The planet will halt his fall.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]

[NickB79]

21. This came to mind

[Arkansas Granny]

11. I hope he has left his widow well provided for.

[texanwitch]

12. One question.

How big is the net and what is it made from.

[rug]

14. The net is only ten square feet but it's 24,990 feet high.

[randome]

15. So it's attached to the underside of the plane is what you're saying.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Don't ever underestimate the long-term effects of a good night's sleep.[/center][/font][hr]

[sl8]

19. The net:

Two answers: 100 feet by 100 feet; Dyneema.

From http://www.outsideonline.com/2099906/how-survive-25000-foot-freefall-without-parachute?utm_campaign=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=xmlfeed :

...
Measuring 100 feet on each side, the Fly Trap—basically a huge polyethylene rope net—will be suspended from a quartet of 200-foot-tall, 70-ton cranes at California's Big Sky Ranch, a popular location for filming Westerns and other movies that require wilderness settings.

Aikins will take off in a Cessna piloted by Dave Kaiser, a longtime friend who has flown him during his training jumps. As the plane nears 25,000 feet in altitude, Aikins will don an oxygen mask. He will use oxygen during his freefall, too, before handing off his mask to his cousin, fellow Red Bull Air Force member Andy Farrington, around 15,000 feet. (Farrington and two other support staff will execute jumps alongside Aikin, with parachutes.)

To outline the Fly Trap’s perimeter, as well as a 28-foot-by-28-foot square near the center that Aikins calls the “sweet spot,” Aikins devised an intricate system of PAPI lights (short for Precision Approach Path Indicators), which are commonly used to guide planes on runway landings. The lights will point straight up and use a special lens to give off a red beam on one half and a white beam on the other half. If Aikins sees a red light, he’ll know he is outside the Fly Trap and must shift his trajectory toward the middle of the square. He will also wear headphones that emit a series of beeps—slowly if he is outside the square, faster if he is near the center—to help guide him toward the target.
How He Hopes to Survive

When Aikins lands, he won’t feel any elasticity in the net itself. Each 1.875-inch square of the Dyneema rope can hold 826 pounds of force on its own, but the material doesn’t stretch. Instead, four compressed air cylinders stationed near the cranes and connected to the Fly Trap via rope and pulleys will cushion Aikins’ impact. The cylinders, a.k.a. air ratchets, are common in the Hollywood stunt world (Aikins has performed stunts in Iron Man 3, Godzilla, and Fast and Furious 7) and Aikins has tested them extensively, dropping a 200-pound dummy into the net from a helicopter dozens of times. He has also jumped into the net himself from 87 feet above it. “The landing was softer than if you stood on a trampoline and just fell onto your back,” he says.
...

[Vinca]

13. And we keep hearing the American people aren't stupid . . .

[awake]

20. Trump says that he is so great he will do it with out a net

[smirkymonkey]

37. If only!

[Johnny2X2X]

22. This seems really risky

I wonder how they've tested their theories. Can you control your fall to correct for being off target? I imagine he'd have sown electronics he can see that tell him if he needs to correct his course.

[dembotoz]

23. always remember the longest day movie where the airborne landed miles off target....

and all the jokes about how men have such poor aim in the bathroom....

[MowCowWhoHow III]

24. I assume the physics of landing on the net at freefall have been worked through

and found compatible with continuing to be alive.

The clench maneuver will of course be accurately hitting the net at freefall velocities.

[sl8]

25. "Daredevil survives 25,000-foot jump without chute over Simi Valley"

http://www.vcstar.com/news/local/simi-valley/sky-diver-prepares-for-simi-valley-free-fall-38bc558f-3861-5f8c-e053-0100007f02a8-388755401.html

Skydiver Luke Aikins jumped from 25,000 feet above Simi Valley and landed in a net without using a parachute.

He landed in a trawler-like fishing net 20 stories above the ground and only about a third the size of a football field, putting his name in the history books as the only sky diver to go from plane to planet Earth without using a parachute.

Although he planned not to use a parachute in a jump Saturday, the Screen Actors Guild required him to carry one in case of an emergency, according to social media reports as he prepared for the jump. Then the producers of the show later said he took off the parachute anyway.
...

[FSogol]

28. Actually, that makes him the 2nd person to survive such a fall w/o a chute

Remember Alan Magee? From Wiki:

Alan Eugene Magee (13 January 1919 – 20 December 2003) was an American airman during World War II who survived a 22,000-foot (6,700 m) fall from his damaged B-17 Flying Fortress. He was featured in Smithsonian Magazine as one of the 10 most amazing survival stories of World War II.

On 3 January 1943, Magee's Flying Fortress, B-17F-27-BO, 41-24620, nicknamed "snap! crackle! pop!", of the 360th Bomb Squadron, 303rd Bomb Group, was on a daylight bombing run over Saint-Nazaire, France when German fighters shot off a section of the right wing, causing the aircraft to enter a deadly spin. This was Magee's seventh mission.

Magee was wounded in the attack but managed to escape from the ball turret. Although his parachute had been damaged and rendered useless by the attack, having no other choice he leapt from the plane without a parachute, rapidly losing consciousness due to the altitude.

By some accounts, Magee fell over four miles before crashing through the glass roof of the St. Nazaire railroad station. The glass roof shattered, mitigating the force of Magee's impact. Rescuers found him still alive on the floor of the station.

More at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Magee

Magee died at 84 in 2003.

[sl8]

32. Nice!

I had heard about him, years ago, but had forgotten.

After you jogged my memory, I also remembered hearing about a B-17 or B-24 crewman who landed safely in the Alps (?), in the detached tail section. Turns out, there are a number of similar stories:
http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/wreckage.html

[duncang]

29. Third person including the other post.

Gary Connery used 18,600 cardboard boxes to land on. His dive was from 24,000 feet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Connery

[sl8]

33. Neat.

Also, insane!

[yuiyoshida]

34. Thank goodness he made it

[Rex]

26. Well in fairness he is the only person qualified to jump out of a plane without a parachute.

So at least he is doing it and not some drunk kid on a dare. 100 by 100 feet eh? Well he landed on a net a 3rd that size. I just hope he adjusts for drift.

[milestogo]

27. I have a very bad feeling about this.

[yuiyoshida]

36. He made it

phew!

[milestogo]

38. I'm glad.

But I'll never understand why somebody takes that kind of risk.

[yuiyoshida]

39. why do some people want to be famous?

Their name is etched in History for record breaking, and they want that legacy.

[spanone]

30. found this: Skydiver successful in jump without parachute

http://fox61.com/2016/07/30/skydiver-successful-in-jump-without-parachute/

[Roland99]

31. Um. Post #25