Big deal.
I just watched the newest Harold and Kumar adventure and they did the same thing WHILE they were being shot at by the homeland security agent.
He brought the house down.
There’s also another terrific scene from Terminal Velocity where a car is dropped out of a plane with a woman locked in its trunk, and Charlie Sheen has to make his jump, pursue the plane, unlock the trunk (he has the keys) and rescue the chuteless woman before the car hits the ground.
The first person to perform the parachuteless skydive stunt was my uncle, Rod Hunt on Jan 1, 1965 over Arvin, California (near Bakersfield). Rod was a stuntman, racer, and expert trampolinist who had performed in Las Vegas, on television, and set motorcycle speed records by the time he made this jump at the age of 26.
He made the jump for an ABC Television Documentary “The Extraordinary Men of Our Time” that aired Saturday, March 13, 1965.
Rod and his cohorts were also featured performing the stunt within the covers of the Jan 15, 1965 LIFE Magazine:
Two other accounts of the stunt can be found in parachuting histories at the following locations:
and
http://starcrestawards.com/history/history_the_arvin_good_guys_part_1.html
In addition to the skydiving stunt, and other daring pursuits, Rod became acquainted with his contemporary, “Evel” Knievel , and collaborated with him in several capacities including initial planing of the Snake River Canyon jump that, originally, was planned to be a 2-man jump with both Evel and Rod, but, was scraped for the 1-man jump eventually attempted by “Evel”, alone, without success in 1974.
In Rod’s later years, he was an avid speed boat racer well into his 70s in northern California, east of San Francisco, before passing away just a few years ago (2012).
Rod was ahead of his time, in many respects and, as ABC’s documentary coined him in 1965, was one of “The Bold Men” of his time.
Very interesting! Thank you for the new information.
My emphasis. Hunt or Pack?
I’m assuming that “Rod Pack” was a stage name, while “Hunt” was his real name.