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Parachutes are for sissies: Stuntman descends 2400 feet in wingsuit, lands in cardboard boxes

By | May 23, 2012, 5:38 PM PDT

Wingsuit jumpers like these (that's not Connery and cameraman) normally use parachutes. All Connery wanted was some cardboard boxes to land on. Photo from Matt Hoover via Wikimedia.

British stuntman Gary Connery today jumped out of a helicopter 2,400 feet above the Oxford countryside in England. Not entirely unusual, except that Connery didn’t take a parachute.

Instead, he strapped on a “wingsuit” and descended like a bird, knifing through the air at about 80 miles per hour until he hit terra firma less than a minute later. Well, not quite terra firma. Connery, 42, disappeared into a long stack of cardboard boxes - 18,600 of them, the BBC reports.

He emerged smiling.  Asked afterwards what he was thinking on the way down, he said, “Hit the spot.”  This is what a guy does for fun when he’s not working in movies like Die Another Day, Batman Begins, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - all part of his resume according to the BBC.

Take out the helicopter, and you have carbon free flying!

Connery’s stunt is believed to be the first time anyone has landed safely after jumping from a helicopter with no parachute.  Wingsuits provide lift by adding surface area to the body. Wingsuit daredevils - known for jumping from cliffs or aircraft - normally land with a parachute.  A second wingsuited bird man joined Connery as the cameraman, but landed with a chute.

Seeing is believing:

YouTube video from Oxford Media Factory.

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Mark Halper

About Mark Halper

Mark Halper is a contributing editor for SmartPlanet.

Mark Halper

Mark Halper

Contributing Editor

Mark Halper has written for TIME, Fortune, Financial Times, the UK's Independent on Sunday, Forbes, New York Times, Wired, Variety and The Guardian. He is based in Bristol, U.K.

Follow him on Twitter.

Mark Halper

Mark Halper

Mark has no financial holdings in the companies he writes about. He occasionally travels at the expense of companies or their press relations agencies in order to report on a company or industry event related to it; Mark will prominently disclose this information when appropriate. This relationship will have no influence on his coverage. Companies he covers do not get to review columns in advance, or select or reject topics.

He writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

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+1 Vote
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Good story, stupid lead in sentance.
- - Watch the latest in carbon free aviation from the British countryside. - -

A helicopter brought him up. I would love to see the worlds first carbon free helicopters in operation.

That would be a great post.
Posted by Hates Idiots
Updated - 24th May 2012
0 Votes
+ -
Mis-leading
Always good to hear from you Hatesidiots. Really appreciate your regular commentaries, and thanks for the praise. I've noticed sometimes we agree, sometimes we don't, which is really the essence of the discussion on the SmartPlanet blog. It's always "open mike night" here. On this occasion, I think you took me too literally, but then again it wouldn't necessarily be clear that I was being tongue in cheek when I referenced "carbon free flight" in the "subhead" that appears on the SmartPlanet home page (but not on the story itself - a bit of a quirky thing about these SP blog posts). However, do note that I come clean in the story, with the line in the 4th paragraph: "Take out the helicopter, and you have carbon free flying." Meanwhile I'll keep an eye out for that CO2-free whirlybird. Let us know if you see it first! Cheers...
Posted by markhalper
24th May 2012
+1 Vote
+ -
I have to admit...
...the only reason I clicked on the article was the "carbon free aviation" part from the daily e-mail. As usual, I was prepared to mock "carbon freeness" as the term continuously gets abused into irrelevance. I appreciate your tongue-in-cheek on this one.

Now, if you'd excuse me, I have some errands to run in my SUV, which would also be carbon free if not for the 20 gallons of gasoline in the tank...
Posted by JohnMcGrew@...
24th May 2012
-1 Votes
+ -
desperation
Seems like Mark is getting desperate for things to write about these days.
Posted by Innovationnut
24th May
+1 Vote
+ -
The other jumper?
What the hell happened to the other jumper?
Posted by GeoffMichael
24th May
0 Votes
+ -
View from above?
The other jumper was a cameraman that filmed the flight from above and landed in the customary way with a parachute. It would be great if someone could post a video of what he shot. Surprised it wasn't part of the video embedded here, but maybe it didn't work out well (can't imagine how hard it is to aim a camera when you're flying like that).
Posted by omb00900@...
24th May
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