Skydiver Plans To Jump From Plane At 25,000 Feet With No Parachute

SIMI VALLEY (CBSLA.com) — Skydiver Luke Aikins has been jumping out of planes since he was 12.

But the jump he plans to complete on Saturday will be extraordinary.

"I'm trying to treat it like just another jump," said the elite skydiver, who is one of the best in the world.

He plans to jump out of a plane at 25,000 feet without a parachute or a wing suit.

"It's gonna mess with your head a little bit," he said. "I have 18,000 jumps jumping out with a parachute on my back and here I'm gonna do it without anything."

His safety net will actually be a net: 100 feet by 100 feet. It will be about 200 feet above the ground.

Aikins will be traveling at around 120 miles per hour when his body hits it.

"It's actually like a big hammock. It kind of cradles you and cups you and it's really soft in the beginning and it hits a little bit hard at the end," he said.

Aikins will use his own body to position his free fall directly into the net.

"I lean forward to go forward. I lean sideways to move sideways and backwards to move backwards," he said. "I just guide my body until I find myself right over this target."

The net is surrounded by special lights that shine red from up above if he's outside the safety zone and white if he's above the net.

Aikins doesn't have any doubt he'll make it.

During rehearsals at Big Sky Ranch in Simi Valley, he has landed in the same spot 73 times in a row.

The Seattle native is married and has a 4-year-old son named Logan.

And while he looks forward to the thrill of the death-defying jump, he isn't willing to haphazardly risk his life.

"There is inherent risk with what I'm doing but I feel like it is a calculated risk, that it's not the daredevil risk," he said. "It's kinda like, 'We've proven all this and we're gonna put it together.' "