Skydiver Will Attempt 25,000-foot Drop Without a Parachute

Luke Aikins is no stranger to skydiving. After all, he has made more than 16,000 jumps in his career. He even played a role in helping Felix Baumgartner make his historic free-fall from the edge of space back in 2012. But now, Aikins is preparing for a daring jump of his own, and it just might be more dangerous than the one that made Baumgartner a household name.

According to this article from Dropzone.com, Aikins is preparing to make a jump from 25,000 feet (7620 meters) without using a parachute at all. Instead, he'll use a wingsuit to control his descent as he attempts to land on a 100x100 foot (30x30 meter) net which will stop his fall.

This event, which will take place at an undermined date later this year, will leave little room for error on the part of Aikins  He'll be traveling at a tremendous speed as he nears the net, and even the slightest error in his flight path could result in disaster. Of course, the jump is set to be aired on television, although it is unclear as to which network will actually show it live.

As Dropzone points out, this won't be the first time a skydiver has jumped out of a plane with out a chute, but in most other cases they had others with them that were able to either grab them on the way down, or hand them a parachute to don as they descended. In this case, Aikins will be all alone, and won't have safety net of carrying a parachute with him. If something goes wrong, he's on his own, and it isn't likely to end well.

The video below is a teaser for the project, which has been dubbed "Heaven Sent." Lets hope that name isn't somehow portentous of the outcome. I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more about this in the weeks ahead.