Skydriving

A reader writes "Autoweek has this article about a group of guys in Arizona who will drop your car out of a cargo jet for $15k. Parachutes for the car are optional. Their ultimate goal is to drop a Greyhound with forty people inside. More pictures here and here)"

anyone have an old beat up car I could borrow?

[Metaldsa]

I swear I will return it in good condition :)

Yes, but can they aim?

[CBNobi]

"There's no real science to it--it's hit or miss," says skydiver/skydriver Greg Gasson

I don't want to know what would happen if they hit, let alone if they miss. Hit what? Where?

(Although, I think this would make a neat little Junkyard Wars-esque competition.. or not)

So...

[Phexro]

If you have an 802.11b-equipped laptop in the car on your way down, are you then warskydriving?

Sounds interesting...

[Error-404NotFound]

Parachutes for the car are optional. Their ultimate goal is to drop a Greyhound with forty people inside.

Think that would be enough to fit all the RIAA executives inside of? i'm not sure..

Seriously though why spend $15k to drop a car out of a plane when you can do the next best thing, throw wireless webcams off of tall buildings! It's fun for everyone!

Re:So, let me get this straight

[Yorrike]

I'd pay them $15K to drop a Greyhound bus packed with 40 people I don't like. Sounds like a great idea.

A new movie

[CaptainMunchies]

For some reason, I see this as a chance for Hollywood to make a Speed 3 ... ::imagines Sandra Bullock fighting terrorists in a parachute at 30,000 feet::

Obligatory Deep Thought

[ElJefe]

"I bet a funny thing about driving a car off a cliff is, while you're in midair, you still hit those brakes! Hey, better try the emergency brake!"
-Jack Handy

Yet another reason to love duct tape...

[thelenm]

From the story: The hoods are duct-taped shut, since metal tearing off at terminal velocity could endanger the "drivers."

Boy, I wish I had a nickel for every time duct tape prevented someone's violent death at terminal velocity.

Acceleration

[Damion]

Look! My car can go from 0 to 60 in 2.75 seconds!

--
http://ragnar.nilmop.com [nilmop.com]

Re:"Gaining speeds of up to 140mph"?

[teamhasnoi]

I have super big pipes on my Civic and a VTEC badge and an "R" sticker and a "Powered by Honda" decal and TWO white racing stripes down the center, so my Honda can go 340 at LEAST before terminal velocity.

I can totally blow the doors off of any Mustang, so watch out! My plate says "00wnzU".

Re:Save yourself 15K...

[oyenstikker]

Noone would want my car. ('89 Dodge Colt with 218,000 miles.) If this car gets me through 2 more years of college and these guys are still around, I think it would be a great way to pay my last respects to my baby.

did anybody else get the feeling..

[mandolin]

.. while they were looking at the second set of pics [skydivingstunts.com], that..

maybe it's not such a hot idea to chase a cargo plane from below and behind, while a car is falling out of its ass?

"Look bubba, *click* that car *click* just keeps getting bigger and bigSMASH

A first ever.

[Bimkins]

"Their ultimate goal is to drop a Greyhound with forty people inside."

This has the potential to be the first 40-way Darwin Award...

It's a great place..

[deathcow]

...to wake up a drunk friend.

Re:So...

[gooberguy]

...how would you mark them?

With the huge crater from your car, silly!

D/\ Gooberguy

Read the article...

[Zeinfeld]

"There's no real science to it--it's hit or miss," says skydiver/skydriver Greg Gasson,

How many times do the cars miss the ground?

Flying cars....

[Jaysyn]

I don't think this is what they ment when they said we'd have flying cars in the future.

Jaysyn

Again: "Perspective"

[cribcage]

But fast ROLLER COASTERS are the great, perilous danger from which we must protect the masses.

Riiiight.

Sometimes the funniest part of being American is comparing the things we can't do with the things that are perfectly legal.

crib

Re:Yes, but can they aim?

[AntiNorm]

any info on parachut clusters big enough for a greyhound

You mean like a Beowulf Cluster of parachutes? :P

Seen on ebay...

[Anonymous Coward]

For sale:

Extreme Car Heavily modified low-rider version of [enter car name here], xxx miles, as well as 12,000 vertical jump.

Re:So...

[Ogerman]

I suppose.. but how could you leave your mark to let all the other warskydrivers know where you found the good networks.. hmm.. Ah yes.. WarCratering!

QOTD

[Devil's BSD]

If at first you do not succeed, then skydriving is not for you.

people aren't subtle enough these days

[Trepidity]

Why back when I was a kid people were sneaky about their homicidal intent. Nowadays they just say "my goal in life is to cram 40 people into a bus, drop it from an airplane, and watch it smash to bits." Hmph.

Re:Read the article...

[kreyg]

How many times do the cars miss the ground?

Not often, but if distracted at just the right moment...

Re:Yes, but can they aim?

[polin8]

Keanu: if the bus drops below 50 mph ...

well, on the bright side, we won't be around long enough to worry about the bomb.

Re:So...

[Salsaman]

Maybe. But imagine if you dropped several cars simultaneously, you could form a Beowulf cluster on the way down.

Re:"WarDrive" for wireless APs on the way down

[BlacKat]

Was that WarDrive or WarDive? ;o)

Re:"Gaining speeds of up to 140mph"?

[phorm]

I guess adding a spoiler wouldn't help much in this case eh? :-)

It's a bird... it's a plane... - phorm

Re:"Gaining speeds of up to 140mph"?

[DemiKnute]

140mph? Is that right? It seems awfully slow to me.

That's only because you've never hit the ground doing 140mph. If you had, you'd realize just how fast that is.

Re:Yet another reason to love duct tape...

[yukonbob]

> Boy, I wish I had a nickel for every time duct tape prevented someone's violent death at terminal velocity.

Yeah...Duct Tape... It's like The Force; it's got a dark side, a light side, and it holds the universe together.

-yb

Re:people aren't subtle enough these days

[Tablizer]

Why back when I was a kid people were sneaky about their homicidal intent. Nowadays they just say "my goal in life is to cram 40 people into a bus, drop it from an airplane, and watch it smash to bits." Hmph.

The real tragedy is that the participants don't have any incentive to write maintainable code.

Re:Yes, but can they aim?

[Zork the Almighty]

As far as i'm concerned, that would would be dope!

Except for the nerdy guy they locked in the bathroom !!!

Re:Military

[DarkHelmet]

Either that, or have the bus go at a velocity so that it crashes into the side of one of their buildings.

"That'll show you how it's done!"

Someone beat them to it.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Their ultimate goal is to drop a Greyhound with forty people inside."

Isn't that called "Southwest Airlines"?

This bus terminates at the next stop ....

[antiRev]

... everybody out. Will there still be the little old lady with ten bags of shopping struggling down the aisle?

Re:It's a great place..

[Cool Hand Luke]

Question: Do you:

a) put your friend in the driver's seat and shake him awake violently, asking him to hit the brakes;

or

b) put your friend in the passenger's seat, nudge him awake, grinning like a madman, and tell him you've found a short cut and will have him home in, oh, 3 minutes?

Decisions, decisions...

Re:So...

[dublin]

You mean like this old Army jumper's song? (The last verse (which may hold some kind of record for musically portrayed gore) stayed with me from one reading when I was maybe 9 or 10, which has been thirty years now... It wasn't hard to find on the web.)

Blood on the Risers

Military Version

to the tune of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"

"Is everybody happy?" cried the Sergeant, looking up.
Our hero feebly answered "yes" and then they stood him up.
He leaped right out into the blast, his static line unhooked.
He ain't gonna jump no more.

Chorus:

Gory, Gory, what a helluva way to die,
Gory, gory, what a helluva way to die
Gory, gory what a helluva way to die
He ain't going to jump no more.

He counted long, he counted loud, he waited for the shock
He felt the wind, he felt the clouds, he felt the awful drop;
He jerked his cord, the silk spilled out and wrapped around his legs.
He ain't gonna jump no more.

Chorus

The risers wrapped around his neck, connectors cracked his dome
The lines were snarled and tied in knots around his skinny bones
The canopy became his shroud, he hurtled to the ground
He ain't gonna jump no more.

Chorus

The days he'd lived and loved and laughed kept running through his mind
He thought about the girl below, the one he'd left behind
He thought about the medico's and wondered what they'd find
He ain't gonna jump no more.

Chorus

The ambulance was on the spot, the jeeps were running wild;
The medics jumped and screamed with glee, they rolled their sleeves and smiled
For it had been a week or more since last a chute had failed
He ain't gonna jump no more.

Chorus

He hit the ground,the sound was splat, his blood went spurting high;
His comrades then were heard to say "A helluva way to die";
He lay there rolling 'round in the welter of his gore.
He ain't gonna jump no more.

Chorus

There was blood upon the risers
There were brains upon the chute
Intestines were a dangling from this paratrooper's boots.
They picked him up, still in his chute, and poured him from his boots.
He ain't gonna jump no more!

Chorus