On July 30 2016, Skydiver Luke Aikins, made history, when he jumped from 25,000 feet out of an airplane without a parachute, landing safely in a net set up in the desert of Simi Valley, California, setting a world record.
Luke, who was 42 at the time of the jump, is a third generation skydiver, who has been skydiving since the age of 16 and has deployed a parachute more 18,000 times over the course of his skydiving and BASE jumping career.
Luke is also is a safety and training adviser for the United States Parachute Association, where he provides advanced skydiving training, to elite military special forces.
After jumping out of the Cessna airplane at 25,000 feet, Luke quickly reached a terminal velocity of 120 miles per hour.
Using his GPS, and only the air currents around him, he lined up his fall to the center of a specialized 100-by-100-foot net, which was designed to stop Luke’s fall, as softly as if you were to stand on a trampoline, and merely drop onto your back.
The total time from jumping from the plane to hitting the net, took about 2 minutes. But when you are falling from 25,000 feet into a small net you can’t even see from 25,000 feet, I bet it felt like a life time.