Skydivers Luke Aikins and Andy Farrington will attempt a feat that has never been done before (and likely for good reason): The two cousins and professional daredevils will each fly their own Cessna 182 “experimental aircraft” to an elevation of 14,000 feet, simultaneously pitch the planes into a vertical nosedive and then proceed to leap into each other's' respective aircraft. Hulu will be livestreaming the aeronautical feat, courtesy of Red Bull TV, on April 24th.
Both Aikin and Farrington regularly perform aerial acts that are not for the faint of heart as members of the Red Bull Air Force, the members of which are some of the best professional skydivers and wingsuit flyers in the world. Aikin made history in 2016 by becoming the first person to jump 7600 meters without a parachute, engineers designed what amounts to a human-sized fish net to break his fall. Andy Farrington’s career highlights include winning the Red Bull ACES championship — a global wingsuit racing competition — twice. Despite being the youngest member of the Red Bull Airforce, the 39-year old has more skydives, BASE jumps and flying hours under his belt than any other member of the team.
The act of plane swapping wouldn’t be technically possible without significant alterations to the aircraft themselves. Aircraft engineer Dr. Paulo Iscold designed a custom airbrake system that allows for both planes to maintain a controlled vertical descent after the cousins disembark. In other words, both planes will descend in a more controlled fashion, roughly at the speed of the skydivers’ descent.
Plane Swap will be livestreamed on Hulu on Sunday, April 24th at 4:00 pm PT/7:00 pm ET.