Watch This Skydiver Leap from a Giant Drone
For the first time in human history, no less.
Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane for fun tends to divide people into two separate categories: There are the folks who do it once and never want to do it again...and there are the folks who want to do it every day for the rest of their lives.
Clearly, Ingus Augstkalns belongs in the latter category. Because on May 12th, he allowed himself to be hoisted up to around 1,100 feet above the ground in Latvia by a drone before plunging into the wild blue yonder with nothing but a parachute to catch him, marking the first time in known history that a human being went skydiving from a drone.
The event was organized by Latvian drone manufacturer Aerones, which built the 28-propeller remote-controlled flying machine used by Augstkalns. To help the drone pull the skydiver up nearly a quarter-mile in the sky, the 'copter picked him up atop a 400-foot tall radio tower, then lofted him the rest of the way as he clung to a handle beneath the craft.
And while Augstkalns clearly seems like the athletic sort, Aerones says the drone can handle payloads of up to 440 pounds—which means it could be used for rescue operations, like plucking people from atop flooded buildings. We're glad to know the dronemaker has noble goals in mind for this technology...but we also hope it doesn't stop willing skydivers from using its aerial machines for jumps, because we really want to give this a try.
