In this Monday, July 25, 2016 photo, cranes stand on the ground as production crew members set up a net about one-third the size of a football field and 20 stories high ahead of skydiver Luke Aikins’ landing attempt without a pa…
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Ever since his first tandem jump at age 12 and then his first solo leap at age 16, he has been doing about 800 jumps every year!
– Dean Potter’s Last BASE Jump: One of the sport’s most acclaimed and safety-conscious jumpers, Potter, 43, was attempting a twilight wingsuit leap from Yosemite National Park’s Taft Point on May 16, 2015, when something went wrong and he plunged to his death.
Luke Aikins, 42, completed the record-breaking stunt on Saturday evening in Simi Valley, California.
– Felix Baumgartner’s Stratosphere Jump: The Austrian daredevil became the first skydiver to break the speed of sound when he jumped from a small capsule 24 miles above Earth on October 14, 2012, and landed safely on the ground near Roswell, New Mexico, nine minutes later.
The skydiver, who did several jumps for the film “Ironman 3”, made the jump as part of the “Heaven Sent” special that aired tonight on Fox.
When his friend Chris Talley came up with the idea two years ago, Aikins acknowledged he turned it down cold. Aikins says: “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t going to be nervous in that plane”.
“Like any normal, sane person I said, ‘Thank you, but no thank you”.
A couple of weeks later he changed his mind. His family owns Skydive Kapowsin near Tacoma, Washington.
“My mom supports me”.
“I’m nearly levitating, it’s incredible”, the jubilant skydiver said, raising his hands over his head as his wife held their son, who dozed in her arms.
“To me, ” he said, “I’m proving that we can do stuff that we don’t think we can do if we approach it the right way”. Braving rain and wind, he climbed for four hours to get to the top, stopping along the way to chat with Taiwan’s president.
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But his skill will be put to the test on FOX25 Saturday night when he jumps out of an airplane wearing just the clothes on his back.
