New Delhi: Skydivers Luke Aikins and Andy Farrington on April 24 (local time) took to the skies for a physics-defying feat 10 years in the making. Aikins and Farrington piloted their own aircraft to 14,000 feet, put them into a vertical dive, and jumped out mid-air in an attempt to switch planes.
However, only Aikins was successful in the feat. He successfully skydived into Farrington's unmanned aircraft. Meanwhile, Farrington could not maintain his balance as a result of which he was not able to skydive into Aikins' plane.
The event was streamed live for three hours on OTT platform Hulu in the United States from 7 pm EDT on April 24 (4:30 am IST, April 25). The live stream can also be watched here from 02:33:40.
Aikins and Farrington are cousins. They performed the stunt in two Cessna 182 single-seat aircraft, flying 14,000 feet over Arizona.
Aikins is said to have conceptualised the 'Plane Swap'. He is also the same pilot who performed the first-ever skydive without a parachute on live TV in 2016.
According to redbull.com, Aikins has performed more than 21,000 skydives, and his main purpose is constant professional growth.
He grew up in a family full of pilots and skydivers and was raised on a private airport where his grandfather founded a skydiving centre in the 1960s, after returning from the war as a P-47 pilot. At the age of 16, Aikins made his first skydive and earned his pilot's licence.
"Plane Swap is the natural progression and culmination of my life's work as a professional, both in the air as a pilot and skydiver and on the ground as an innovator," Aikins was quoted as saying in a report by ABC7. Aikins had also said that it is his goal to inspire the world and show that anything is possible.