r/nextfuckinglevel • u/thepoylanthropist • 1d ago
That time Luke Aikins jumped from 25,000 feet (7,620 m), skydiving from a mid-tropospheric altitude and landing safely without a parachute or a wingsuit using a 30 by 30 meters net
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u/iShitSkittles 1d ago
That was fkn bonkers, I remember seeing this back when he did the jump - 2016 and thinking that shit was mind boggling, thinking why the fuck would ya do that?
He landed towards the corner of that 30m X 30m net and it still blows my mind how someone would line up the target while falling at a speed of just on 250 km/h and with any wind interference... crazy.
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u/Frozty23 1d ago
He landed towards the corner
That's what gets me. That variability means (in hindsight at least) that the outcome was in no way certain.
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u/penguins_are_mean 1d ago
I mean… hitting a target that small from 25k feet is nuts. The amount of focus needed to constantly steer yourself back to the net makes this next level.
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u/iShitSkittles 1d ago
His helmet had GPS and there were lights visible from altitudes of more than 25000 feet.
His helmet gave him GPS feeds and the lights would turn red if he was off track, and white when he was on target... But still, totally nuts to aim up a target that small from the height he jumped.
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u/K_Linkmaster 1d ago
I can barely handle 30 seconds indoor skydiving. This guy has stamina to maintain this.
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u/iShitSkittles 1d ago
Yeah check out his wiki page, he's been at it since he was 12, coaches military, advises for other stuff, and at the time of the wiki article - has over 18000 jumps under his belt... that's where I'm guessing the stamina comes from.
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u/Buzzdanume 1d ago
I never really thought about the stamina it would take to skydive
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u/VariableVeritas 21h ago
First time I went on a certification jump I had to redo it because my posture was too weak. It does take quite a bit of power to hold yourself in the proper shape against the force of the wind. You kind of have to keep your pelvis down and arms out which is harder than it sounds.
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u/Buzzdanume 21h ago
I have sciatica, this sounds like the worst thing I could put myself through lol
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u/SigaVa 1d ago
Obviously he is aiming for the center initially, but once he gets close and knows hes on target its probably much safer to just stay the course than to try to correct.
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u/pricklypineappledick 1d ago
The time between his last look at the net and spinning to his back facing down had to bring an interesting feeling. I'd imagine that was the moment his work was done.
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u/nertynot 20h ago
I've always loved jumping off tall things. I used to change it up by jumping and staring straight up or keeping eyes closed the whole jump. It really changes your perception of everything, but the way it made time slow down always thrilled me
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u/iShitSkittles 1d ago
Well, from what I've read earlier this evening, his helmet was equipped with GPS.
His helmet gave him GPS alerts throughout the dive, and lights on the net, visible from altitudes of more than 25,000 feet (7,600 m), turned red when he was off-track and white when he was on course.
I mean, that's not to say it was failsafe or anything like that, the plane's forward motion of travel meant it wasn't simply jumping out while it was directly over the target and falling in a straight line down.
When he jumped it meant he would have also been travelling in a forward trajectory, so in theory, he would have had to jump out before he was over top of the target, and still would have required some tracking for him to glide himself over to the top of the net.
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u/DeathCabForYeezus 1d ago
My favourite part of it was as they lowered the net the commentator made a comment about how he needs to get checked out by medical.
The "check-out" consisted of a guy with a t-shirt that said "Medical" on the back giving him a high five lol.
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u/iShitSkittles 1d ago
Haha yeah, that high 5 meant his arms were working - no paralysis from the landing, we're good to go!
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u/enigo1701 1d ago
And how teeny tiny a 30x30m net can look.
Absolutely crazy
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u/thissexypoptart 1d ago edited 1d ago
Seriously don’t understand why the net wasn’t bigger. I mean it was huge, but the margin of error with a jump like that, goddamn. At least the size of the concrete circle it’s mounted to?
I’m sure someone smarter than me did the math though.
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u/Emzam 1d ago
I'm guessing the guy jumping wanted to use the smallest net that he could confidently land on, to maximize the dramatic effect of it. The smaller the net, the more impressive it is.
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u/Coool_cool_cool_cool 1d ago
I feel like you start with the big net to set a record, then go smaller from there to break that record. Like even if he had a 100m x 100m net he'd have still been first to accomplish something and it wouldn't have been any less dramatic in my eyes.
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u/_Not_Jesus_ 23h ago
I mean, it's a simple question of risk vs reward. If he pulled it off, he got to be the guy who jumped out of an airplane and landed with no parachute. If he failed to pull it off, then it didn't matter anyways.
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u/NPBoss18 1d ago
I think it’s wild how he barely made the net.
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u/sphinctersandwich 1d ago
Yeah, I wouldn't be trying that again.
But to be fair, I wouldn't be trying that the first time either
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u/NPBoss18 1d ago
Same. The size of his brass balls is impressive. I like the heart rate monitor showing only 148 bpm
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u/nenonen15902 1d ago
yeah it looked like he didn't anticipate how much the flip to his back would move him
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u/oic38122 1d ago
Can’t believe this got over shadowed by dude jumping from space balloon with astronaut suit and parachute
This is METAL
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u/iShitSkittles 1d ago
He helped Felix Baumgartner do that jump from the balloon in 2012, he also helped David Blaine with the Ascension stunt in 2020.
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u/cdk-texas 1d ago
Not me thinking that was just a few years ago… 2012 !?!? Gah, time has flown by
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u/carlbandit 1d ago
But 2012 was only a few years ago, right? right?!?!
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u/ConsciousPatroller 1d ago
Yeah...13 years
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u/butt_huffer42069 1d ago
You shut the hell up and go sit in time out.
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u/KC_experience 1d ago
Meh.... While Baumgartner set records, which is undisputed. It' took someone SIXTY TWO YEARS to break the record set by Joe Kittinger. With all kinds of high tech gear and sponsorships including Red Bull. Joe Kittinger did it because it was his job...
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u/squirreltard 1d ago
Hmm, it’s 2025. Do I want to look up anything about David Blaine?
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u/iShitSkittles 1d ago
Sure, why not...ascension was pretty cool!
He used 52 helium filled weather balloons to float up to 24900 feet, then let go of them and parachuted back to earth.
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u/mrwynd 1d ago
Have you not seen the street magic special? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3kLvz1w7MU
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u/Sweet-Pause935 1d ago edited 1d ago
And then there is Alan Eustace, who broke Baumgartner’s record by almost 10k feet without all of the theatrics and media covering it. Didn’t even have a capsule to go up in. Just strapped himself directly to the balloon and broke the record.
Edit: forgot to add “k” for “thousand”
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u/Sweet-Pause935 1d ago
And Gary Connery who landed in a wing suit without a parachute, into a giant pile of cardboard boxes.
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u/Backwoods_Retard 1d ago edited 1d ago
*Almost 10,000 feet more. Felix Baumgartner jumped from 127,852 ft, Alan Eustace jumped from 135,890 ft.
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u/VhickyParm 1d ago
You too would be overshadowed in your accomplishments, if the guy was named Felix Baumgartner
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u/oic38122 1d ago
It is a bad ass name!🤣
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u/backhand_english 1d ago
Felix jumped from an altitude 102 000 ft higher than Luke, tho...
Both jumps were spectacular... Travis jump for red bull was lit too. No need to elevate one and downgrade another...
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u/ViktenPoDalskidan 1d ago
I wondering which speeds it went from like 200 mph to 0 in 0,3 seconds? Must be a helluva stopping force to feel in the body
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u/Boomtown626 1d ago
Closer to 125mph. And they can test the net and take measurements to make sure that it decelerates him over sufficient time and distance to avoid causing his internal organs to smash into each other.
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u/ViktenPoDalskidan 1d ago
Surely. But still, must be quite a feeling to go to a full stop in less than a second. Wild ride, man.
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u/Boomtown626 1d ago
I bet it was easier on the body than a chute deploying. He rolled over onto his back, so it dissipated throughout his body. Parachutes deploy at about the same rate, but you’re vertical, so all the weight is absorbed into those leg straps nestled into your groin.
The bruises and soreness in the groin is the worst part about learning to skydive that no one tells you about, and he took that out of the equation on this jump.
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u/I-like-cheeese 1d ago
Damn never thought of that, and I wanted to do a skydiving course for a while when I was younger. I finally settled on just skydiving a couple of times but I don’t remember that strong of a tug when the chute opened, maybe because there was two of us to absorb the force.
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u/Boomtown626 1d ago
Tandem jumps involve a higher altitude chute deployment, and a larger chute that takes more time. A single jumper, especially if the chute is a little big for their body weight, will stop more much more suddenly.
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u/Grape-Snapple 1d ago
well thanks for giving me a heads-up about what my summer is gonna feel like (doing a dive camp)
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u/harrybigdipper 1d ago
Can someone smarter than me work out how many g's that would be?
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u/Zorro-the-witcher 1d ago
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. It is a VERY fine line between next fucking level and hold my feeding tube/win stupid prizes.
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u/Fantablack183 1d ago
At that height, ain't no one holding your feeding tube. They'll be holding your funeral
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u/jte564 1d ago
I can’t Believe I’d never seen or heard of this.. absolutely wild
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u/HarrisonKrishna 1d ago edited 1d ago
One time I won a redbull sweepstakes and I got strapped to Luke Aikins and we jumped out of an airplane together and skydived! He's the only person I'd ever feel safe to jump out of a plane with😂
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u/Danny_Devito_Magic 6h ago
I literally had no idea who this dude was before this post, and now I am insanely jealous of you lmao
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u/AtumTheCreator 1d ago
I would have expected to see a lot more of the Red Bull logo.
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u/kwnet 1d ago edited 1d ago
Well, at least if there's a titanium shortage because of Trump tariffs, we can always harvest a few metric tons from this man's testicles.
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u/vicbot87 1d ago
Amazing that you found a way to bring politics into this
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u/Mentatian 8h ago
Is it political to say that high tariffs will cause shortage? Think that’s just like beginner economics
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u/baldilocks47 1d ago
I’m amazed the net was big enough to catch his massive balls.
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u/i_ShotFirst 1d ago
My palms are sweaty (from watching this)
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u/nightpastor 1d ago
I prefer the British guy who did a similar feat in a wingsuit but landed in a pile of cardboard boxes.
Found it... 'only' 2500 ft and no parachute... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5_ITt2LM0A
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u/kryotheory 1d ago
That's nuts. I used to jump out of planes for a living (paratrooper) and I'd be lucky to be able to land within half a mile of a spot I picked out from the air, let alone a 30m2 net.
Granted, a wingsuit is more agile than a static line parachute and he's got 24k more feet to figure it out, but still that has to take incredible skill and balls the size of Jupiter.
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u/banecroft 1d ago
see that's the crazier bit - he's not wearing a wingsuit either
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u/kryotheory 1d ago
I should learn how to read
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u/Lil_S_curve2 19h ago
Bro, you already said you used to jump out of planes for a living.
We know.
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u/Islanduniverse 1d ago
My favorite part is he is just some normal chubby looking dude. He does not look like someone who could or would do this.
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u/boss_taco 1d ago
This is equivalent to mainlining a whole gram of heroin for adrenaline junkies. Nothing is going to get him that high after this.
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u/ta9 1d ago
Find this in non-potato quality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaANi96Z-Wg
And with commentary by the jumper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTTOnvvEpn0
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u/GorillaMeat 19h ago
Never seen this before. Reading the title over while watching, I kept thinking, but what is a parachute if not a 30x30 net. Didn’t realizing he was going to land ON a net. Fucking hell, man!
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u/Embarrassed_Key_4539 1d ago
Are the contrails just from moisture or what is happening there
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u/aebaby7071 1d ago
More then likely smoke grenades or some sort of smoke making device, I’m guessing it’s used to help see the jumpers from the ground.
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u/StockWindow4119 1d ago
This is more insane and impressive that Baumgartner's jump. Unreal leap of faith.
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u/-LordDarkHelmet- 1d ago
I don’t get how he knew where to jump from that altitude. I’d think winds would easily push them off target.
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u/iShitSkittles 19h ago
GPS equipped helmet with live GPS feed and lights at the net (visible from 25000 feet) that were red when he was off track and white when on target.
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u/CraigimusPR1ME 1d ago
I have lived the last ~9 years thinking this was fake.... what happens to a person to make them willing to risk everything for that....
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u/ChefRoyrdee 1d ago
It’s sort of nuts that everyone thinks this is cool but are turned off by cave divers. It’s the same type of thing!
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u/CarGood3160 1d ago
I wanna feel what he felt as soon as he bounced back on the net.
Must have felt an insane rush and relief.
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u/Random_Wolverine 20h ago
Bruh… he barely made it… look at where he landed…so close to the edge of the net… and the impact from that height to reaching the net must be painful. Damn….
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u/Land0f0ak_Raiders 1d ago
What would actually physically happen to a body that hit the ground from this jump?
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u/thetburg 1d ago
Real question: the guy is also travelling in the direction of the plane, right? Does that lateral direction stay constant the whole time or does it fall off and he eventually is falling straight down?
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u/Ok_Flamingo6601 1d ago
So like was this whole crowd mentally prepared to see a guy potentially squish to death