Skydiver first to ditch parachute

[struggle4progress]

A STUNTMAN has made aviation history by becoming the first skydiver to land without using a parachute.

Gary Connery, 42, from Oxfordshire, leapt from a helicopter 1.5km above Henley-on-Thames in southern England, then glided down using a specially adapted wing suit before landing on a "runway" of 18,000 cardboard boxes.

"It was so comfortable, so soft. My calculations obviously worked out and I'm glad they did," he said after the jump.

His wife Vivian said she was "relieved it's all over" ...

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/skydiver-first-to-ditch-parachute/story-e6frf7lf-1226365171255

video @ link

[PoliticAverse]

1. I don't know where he bought his boxes, but I think a parachute is still cheaper... n/t

[Chan790]

3. I don't think cost was the factor here.

I'm guessing he over compensated on the boxes in case his prototype did not work.

This was about doing something that nobody had done before, developing a new solution to an old problem and to advance the technology of a field that has not changed much since WW II.

[struggle4progress]

2. Wingsuit jumper Gary Connery completes 'no parachute' fall over Oxfordshire

[petronius]

4. That was not the soft and birdlike landing I expected!

[mysuzuki2]

5. Meh.

I saw Flash Gordon do this 60 years ago! On the planet Mongo.