Freefall!

Diving from an airplane is usually no big deal for Luke Aikins. He’s a professional skydiver who has completed about 18,000 jumps, including aerial stunts for movies like Iron Man 3 and Godzilla. But a jump he made last July would have made anyone nervous—even a seasoned skydiver like Aikins. That’s because he executed it without a parachute from an altitude of 7,620 meters (25,000 feet). 

During the jump, Aikins reached a speed of about 190 kilometers (118 miles) per hour as he rocketed toward Earth. A team of skydivers wearing parachutes jumped with him, some filming the feat for a live TV broadcast. After about two minutes, Aikins landed safely in a net on the ground.

“When I landed, it was wild!” says Aikins, who lives in Shelton, Washington, and performed the stunt in Simi Valley, California. “About halfway up in the plane, I thought: ‘Why am I doing this?’” he says. “If you don’t have a moment like that, you’re not human.”

Diving from an airplane is usually no big deal for Luke Aikins. He’s a professional skydiver who has completed about 18,000 jumps. That includes stunts for movies like Iron Man 3 and Godzilla. But a jump he made last July would have made anyone nervous—even a seasoned skydiver like Aikins. That’s because he performed it without a parachute from a height of 7,620 meters (25,000 feet). 

During the jump, Aikins reached a speed of about 190 kilometers (118 miles) per hour as he rocketed toward Earth. A team of skydivers wearing parachutes jumped with him. Some of them filmed the feat for a live TV broadcast. After about two minutes, Aikins landed safely in a net on the ground.

“When I landed, it was wild!” says Aikins, who lives in Shelton, Washington. He performed the stunt in Simi Valley, California. “About halfway up in the plane, I thought: ‘Why am I doing this?’” he says. “If you don’t have a moment like that, you’re not human.”

Skydivers normally use a parachute to land safely. Air pushes against the parachute, creating drag. This force slows a skydiver’s fall and lessens the force at which he or she hits the ground. 

“When you hit a hard surface, it hurts because the body exerts a force on the surface and the surface exerts a force back,” says Potvin. That’s a result of Newton’s third law of motion, which states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. “To survive a fall, you need to absorb the shock of the impact.”  

Skydivers normally use a parachute to land safely. Air pushes against the parachute, creating drag. This force slows a skydiver’s fall. It lessens the force at which he or she hits the ground. 

“When you hit a hard surface, it hurts because the body exerts a force on the surface and the surface exerts a force back,” says Potvin. That’s a result of Newton’s third law of motion. This law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. “To survive a fall, you need to absorb the shock of the impact.”  

Without a parachute, Aikins would speed toward the ground at terminal velocity—the highest velocity an object can achieve when falling through air (see Reaching Terminal Velocity). So he came up with the idea of using a net—but not an ordinary one you could buy at a sporting goods store. Aikins had special lightweight netting made using strong, braided synthetic fibers. This type of material gave the net low tension—a force that stretches an object. “You need a net that’s strong but without too much tension,” says Potvin. “Otherwise, you’d bounce right off like a trampoline.” 

Aikins suspended the 30-by-30-m (100-by-100-ft) net on four 46 m (150 ft)-tall poles. Each pole contained a pulley system connected to an air piston—a cylinder that moves within a tube to transfer a force. When Aikins fell into the net, the pistons activated to absorb the impact of his body. 

Without a parachute, Aikins would speed toward the ground at terminal velocity. That’s the highest velocity an object can reach when falling through air (see Reaching Terminal Velocity). So he came up with the idea of using a net. But this was no ordinary net. It was special lightweight netting. Aikins had it made from strong, braided synthetic fibers. This material gave the net low tension—a force that stretches an object. “You need a net that’s strong but without too much tension,” says Potvin. “Otherwise, you’d bounce right off like a trampoline.” 

Aikins hung the 30-by-30-m (100-by-100-ft) net on four 46 m (150 ft)-tall poles. Each pole held a pulley system connected to an air piston. That’s a cylinder that moves inside a tube to transfer a force. Aikins’ fall triggered the pistons. The pistons absorbed the impact of his body. 

A second before landing, Aikins flipped onto his back so that his spine and arms would curl in toward his body and the net would cradle him like a hammock. “I hit the net and tensed up, expecting a hard impact,” says Aikins. “Then I started laughing—I couldn’t believe how light it felt.”

Aikins says he doesn’t plan to top his latest feat, but he hopes the amount of preparation and engineering it took might change the way people view these types of stunts. “Some people might think I go out and do something like this without a lot of thought behind it,” says Aikins. “I want to show people that it takes a lot of planning and testing to be successful.”

A second before landing, Aikins flipped onto his back. That way, his spine and arms would curl in toward his body. The net would cradle him like a hammock. “I hit the net and tensed up, expecting a hard impact,” says Aikins. “Then I started laughing—I couldn’t believe how light it felt.”

Aikins says he doesn’t plan to top his latest feat. But it took a huge amount of preparation and engineering. He hopes this might change the way people view these types of stunts. “Some people might think I go out and do something like this without a lot of thought behind it,” says Aikins. “I want to show people that it takes a lot of planning and testing to be successful.”