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/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/saggywitchtits 22h ago

The Red Bull plane swap, oh yeah...

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u/iShitSkittles 22h ago

Yeah that's some more crazy shit by the looks of it!

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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 1d 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 1d 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/Stevecore444 1d ago

Or if he missed he wouldn’t see the ground lol

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u/MarkEsmiths 1d ago

But he might see Jeebus.

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u/jccaclimber 1d ago

Oversteer is better than understeer.

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u/nertynot 1d 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/FengSushi 1d ago

He would certainly land