Luke Aikins

Luke Aikins (born November 21, 1973) is an American professional skydiver, BASE jumper, pilot, and aerial photographer. He is the first person to intentionally dive from mid-tropospheric altitude and land safely without a parachute or a wingsuit and the second skydiver to intentionally jump and safely land without using a parachute.

Aikins is affiliated with Red Bull.

Sky diving Aikins has coached United States Navy SEALs and NASCAR's Brian Vickers, and has advised the military on skydiving techniques. He is also an aerial photographer and his photos have been published in major magazines and newspapers.

In 2012, he helped skydiver Felix Baumgartner jump from a helium balloon in the stratosphere at . Aikins also worked on stunts in the film Iron Man 3.

In 2020, he helped David Blaine with his Ascension stunt.

July 2016 jump

On July 30, 2016, Aikins jumped from an aircraft without any parachute or wingsuit at an altitude of above Simi Valley, California, watched by a live audience. After about two minutes of free fall he successfully landed in a net just outside of Simi Valley, California. Aikins reached a terminal velocity of during the fall. It had four compressed air cylinders designed to gently slow him down after impact.

Although several news articles headlines describe Aikins' achievement by focusing on the fact that he jumped and went to freefall without parachute, many others have jumped from aircraft without having a parachute when they departed the plane—they were either handed a parachute by a fellow jumper while in freefall or maneuvered to a container carrying a parachute, with first successes dating back to 1965. Others have jumped out of an aircraft and returned to the same or another aircraft without making use of parachute.

Red Bull plane-swap stunt crash

On April 24, 2022, during the highly publicized stunt staged as a Hulu On-Demand special event, he and his cousin Andy Farrington attempted and failed to swap planes mid air, resulting in the total loss of one plane.

Aikins and Farrington had been denied permission to undertake the stunt by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and subsequently had their pilot licenses revoked by the FAA.