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Skydiver becomes first person to jump and land without chute

11 Comments
By JOHN ROGERS

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A couple of guys have jumped into nets and piles of boxes and foam, but they were were wearing squirrel suits with webbing between the arms and legs. This gives them better drag and aiming. They hit the ground about 90 mph. Luke Aikins, after 18,000 jumps, doesn't even need the squirrel suit. He can hit the net, at 120 mph, which is no faster than a stuntman jumping off a five story building. That's what terminal velocity is all about and why these stunts work. I can imagine how wonderfully free Luke Aikins must have felt. As soon as I have 18,000 jumps, I'm gonna try this. Congratulations Luke.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

I have height phobia. Just thinking about this is making me sick.Lol

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Don't risk your life. Not for us. Or an imagined us.

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actually if you want to get technical Air Force Sergeant Alan Magee flew in the B-17 and was shot down in WW2, he was flung out of the plane as it spiraled downward, he hit a glass ceiling of a train station which slowed is fall, while seriously injured he survived, there have been a few others that have survived falling from planes and surviving, although badly injured.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

CrazyJoe, he may have forgone the squirrel suit, but he certainly packed the nuts.

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Here's a 40-second video from BBC of the jump... he was rather close to the edge of that net by my standards! http://www.bbc.com/news/video_and_audio/headlines/36935234

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I dare him to do it again. NOT!

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I have a lot of respect for this guy - even if his jump appeared a bit irresponsible trying it while having a wife and child watching.It took guts and self-belief.. Many congratulations.

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Some days I wonder why people get their thrills for intentionally putting themselves in harmful situations. Yeesh.

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There are cases of people departing airplanes without parachutes and surviving. They left not as a stunt, but because staying in the plane was the worst of two choices. During World War II over Germany, a gunner in a B-17.

On January 3, 1943, his Flying Fortress—B-17F-27-BO, 41-24620, nicknamed "snap! crackle! pop!"[1]—part of the 360th Bomb Squadron, 303rd Bomb Group,[2] 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. His parachute had been damaged and rendered useless by the attack, so he leapt from the plane without one, rapidly losing consciousness due to the altitude. He 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 on the floor of the station.

Magee was taken as a prisoner of war and given medical treatment by his captors. He had 28 shrapnel wounds in addition to his injuries from the fall: several broken bones, severe damage to his nose and eye, lung and kidney damage, and a nearly severed right arm.

Magee was liberated in May 1945 and received the Air Medal for meritorious conduct and the Purple Heart. On January 3, 1993, the 50th anniversary of the attack, the people of St. Nazaire honored Magee and the crew of his bomber by erecting a 6-foot-tall (1.8 m) memorial to them.

Flight Sergeant Nicholas Stephen Alkemade (1922–1987) was a rear gunner in Royal Air Force Avro Lancaster heavy bombers during World War II, who survived—without a parachute—a fall of 18,000 feet (5,500 m) when abandoning his out-of-control, burning aircraft over Germany.

On the night of 24 March 1944, 21-year-old Alkemade was one of seven crew members in Avro Lancaster B Mk. II, DS664,[1] of No. 115 Squadron RAF. Returning from a 300 bomber raid on Berlin, east of Schmallenberg, DS664 was attacked by a German Ju 88 night-fighter, [Note 1] caught fire and began to spiral out of control. Because his parachute was unserviceable, Alkemade jumped from the aircraft without one, preferring to die by impact rather than burn to death. He fell 18,000 feet (5,500 m) to the ground below.

His fall was broken by pine trees and a soft snow cover on the ground. He was able to move his arms and legs and suffered only a sprained leg. The Lancaster crashed in flames, killing pilot Jack Newman and three other members of the crew. They are buried in the CWGC's Hanover War Cemetery.

Alkemade was subsequently captured and interviewed by the Gestapo, who were initially suspicious of his claim to have fallen without a parachute until the wreckage of the aircraft was examined. He was a celebrated prisoner of war, before being repatriated in May 1945. (Reportedly, the Germans gave Alkemade a certificate testifying to the fact.)

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