Jumped without a parachute. Mozhaisk landing: from a strafing flight without parachutes to German tanks

Jumping out of a plane without a parachute sounds like the plot of a comedy cartoon, but it actually happened. Luke Aikins, 42, became the first skydiver in history not only to intentionally jump out of an airplane without a parachute, but also to survive. If you think that an experienced skydiver is not afraid to make a jump without a parachute, then you are mistaken, Luke was very scared. What can I say, it's scary even just to look at.

Luke Aikins jumped out of the plane along with other skydivers from a height of 25,000 feet (7620 m). After two minutes of free fall, other skydivers opened their parachutes, leaving the daredevil alone with thoughts of landing.

Luke bailed out along with three other skydivers who had parachutes.

Luke is a highly experienced skydiver who has made over 18,000 skydive jumps and filmed stunts for Iron Man 3.

Luke was to land in a 30m x 30m net at the Big Sky Ranch in California.

Luke's mom was the only member of his family who said she wouldn't watch her son during the jump.

As you can see, his landing was successful.

"I'm going to fly all the way to the net, but that's not the point. The point is that I have to deal with the parachute on my back and what it can do to my body," Luke said.

Just minutes before the jump, the show organizer learned that the requirement had been lifted and Luke immediately jumped out of the plane without a parachute.

Luke Eikns is online, and his brain is trying in every way to understand what just happened.

After Luke came to his senses, he was beside himself with happiness.

If after this jump Luke's motto is "never again", then we understand him.

American skydiver Luke Aikins jumped out of a plane today from a height of 7.6 kilometers. He did not take a parachute with him. But after a couple of minutes, his friends and relatives were crying for joy and hugging Luke, rather than shedding tears over the cake from his body. Relive this incredible jump with an athlete one more time.

And now we will tell you what was behind this crazy trick.

Luke Aikins was born into a family of base jumpers and sky divers, so he began skydiving as early as adolescence. By today's 42 years old, he has made about 18,000 jumps (in 30 cases he had to open a reserve parachute), trained several world-famous skydivers, prepared tricks for Iron Man - 3 and acted as a consultant.

The first time Luke was asked to do this stunt, he refused. The extreme frightened by the prospect of leaving his wife and son without the head of the family. However, two weeks later, he woke up in the middle of the night and was determined to make the jump.

Luke Aikens before the jump: “This is a calculated risk, we double-checked everything, there is science behind me. Science and mathematics are with me. We'll show you what's really possible."

The jump was prepared for about two years by several dozen people, including engineers, technicians and hundreds of dummies dropped from the sky.

Aikins jumped from a single-engine plane. Due to its low horizontal speed, it was possible to determine the point at which the athlete needed to leave the board as accurately as possible.

In the first phase of the flight, Aikins was accompanied by three parachutists who filmed the jump, carried a supply of oxygen with them and, probably, would have saved the extreme sportsman if he had been blown off the trajectory. In the footage, you can see how Aikins gave one of them an oxygen mask at an altitude of 4.5 kilometers.

Landing net dimensions - 30 x 30 meters. It was suspended at a height of 20 floors. Under it and around were only earth and sand. Technicians used fasteners that loosened the tension of the net at the moment the athlete touched it.

In order for Aikins to see the landing point during the flight, 4 narrowly directed lamps were installed on the sides of the net. When Luke was on the correct trajectory, he saw a white light from them. If he saw a red light, it means that the trajectory is wrong, it must be urgently corrected.

The skydiver had to roll over on his back a second before landing. If he landed on his stomach, he would almost certainly be badly injured. If he had rolled over ahead of time, he would have lost sight of the net and most likely missed. It was this pre-landing flip that Aikins rehearsed several times during the flight.

Luke Aikins after landing: “I kind of levitated like a saint or a monk. It's incredible, wonderful. I can't put it all into words. Thanks to the guys who helped me. This is amazing!

Where to aim? Maggie crashed onto the stone floor of the station, but his fall was halted when he crashed through the glass roof a moment before. It hurts, but it saves. A haystack would do too. Some lucky ones remained alive, having landed in a dense bush. The thicket is also not bad, although you can run into some branch. Snow? Just perfect. Swamp? A soft, vegetated bog is the most desirable option. Hamilton talks about the case when a skydiver with a parachute that did not open landed directly on high-voltage wires. The wires spring back and throw him up, saving his life. The most dangerous surface is water. Like concrete, it is practically incompressible. The result of falling on the ocean surface will be about the same as on the sidewalk. The only difference is that asphalt, alas! — will not open beneath you to forever devour the broken body.

Without losing sight of the intended goal, take care of the position of your body. To slow down your fall, act like a skydiver on a high jump. Spread your legs and arms wider, throw your head back, straighten your shoulders, and you yourself will turn your chest to the ground. Your frontal resistance will immediately increase, and there will be room for maneuver. The main thing is not to relax. In your, frankly, predicament, the question of how to prepare for a meeting with the earth, unfortunately, remains not completely resolved. An article on this subject was published in the journal War Medicine in 1942. It said: "In an attempt to avoid injuries, the distribution of loads and their compensation plays a large role." Hence the recommendation - you need to fall flat. On the other hand, a 1963 report published by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) states that the classic grouping adopted among skydivers will be optimal for saving life: legs together, knees higher, shins pressed to the hips. The same source notes that disaster survival is greatly facilitated by training in sports such as wrestling or acrobatics. When falling on hard surfaces, it would be especially useful to have some skills in martial arts.

Japanese skydiver Yasuhiro Kubo trains like this: he throws his parachute out of the plane, and then jumps out himself. Dragging the process to the limit, he catches up with his equipment, puts it on and then pulls the ring. In 2000, Kubo jumped at a height of 3 km and spent 50 seconds in free fall until he caught up with the satchel with his parachute. All these useful skills can be practiced in safer environments, such as free fall simulators - vertical wind tunnels. However, simulators will not allow you to work out the most crucial stage - a meeting with the ground.

If the water surface is waiting for you below, get ready for quick and decisive action. According to the surviving lovers of jumping from high bridges, we can conclude that the optimal entry into the water would be a “soldier”, that is, feet first. Then you will have at least some chance to get to the surface alive.

On the other hand, famous cliff divers who hone their skills near Acapulco believe that it is better to enter the water head first. At the same time, they put their hands with interlaced fingers in front of their heads, protecting it from a blow. You can choose any of these positions, but try to maintain a parachuting position until the very last second. Then, above the water itself, if you prefer to dive "soldier", we strongly recommend that you strain your buttocks with all your might. It would not be too decent to explain why, but you can probably guess for yourself.

Whatever surface awaits you below, in any case, do not land on your head. Researchers at the Security Institute traffic concluded that in such situations, the main cause of death is traumatic brain injury. If you're still being carried head first, it's best to land on your face. This is safer than hitting the back of the head or the top of the skull.

07:02:19 Altitude 300 meters

If, having fallen out of the plane, you started reading this article, then by now you have reached just these lines. You already have the initial course, and now it's time to pull yourself together and focus on the task ahead of you. However, here is some additional information.

Statistics show that in the event of a disaster, it is more profitable to be a crew member or a child, and if there is a choice, it is better to crash on a military aircraft. Over the past 40 years, at least 12 plane crashes have been recorded in which only one person survived. On that list, four were crew members and seven were passengers under the age of 18. Survivors include Mohammed el-Fateh Osman, a two-year-old child who survived a Boeing crash in Sudan in 2003, landing in the wreckage. Last June, when a Yemenia Airways liner crashed near the Comoros, only 14-year-old Bahia Bakari survived.

The survival of crew members can be associated with more reliable passive safety systems, but why children are more likely to survive is not yet clear. FAA studies note that children, especially those under the age of four, have more flexible bones, more relaxed muscles and a higher percentage of subcutaneous fat, which effectively protects internal organs. People of small stature - if their head does not stick out from behind the backs of aircraft seats - are well protected from flying debris. With a small body weight, the steady rate of fall will also be lower, and a smaller frontal section reduces the chance of running into a sharp object when landing.

07:02:25 Altitude 0 meters

So, we've arrived. Hit. Are you still alive? And what are your actions? If you escaped with minor injuries, you can stand up and smoke, as did the British Nicholas Alkemade, the tail gunner, who in 1944, after falling from a six-kilometer height, landed in a snow-covered thicket. If no jokes, then there is still a lot of trouble ahead of you.

Consider the case of Juliana Kopke. She flew a Lockheed Electra on Christmas Eve in 1971. The liner exploded somewhere over the Amazon. The 17-year-old German woman woke up the next morning under the jungle canopy. She was strapped into her seat, and there were piles of Christmas presents all around. Wounded, all alone, she forced herself not to think about her dead mother. Instead, she focused on the advice of her biologist father: "Lost in the jungle, you will go out to people, following the flow of water." Kopke walked along forest streams, which gradually merged into rivers. She avoided the crocodiles and pounded the shallow water with a stick to scare away the stingrays. Somewhere, having stumbled, she lost a shoe, only a torn miniskirt remained from her clothes. Of the food, she had only a bag of sweets with her, and she had to drink dark, dirty water. She ignored her broken collarbone and the inflamed open wounds.