As he prepared to jump out of a plane at 25,000ft, Luke Aikins could barely see his landing zone. This is not unusual, but landing in the correct area mattered more for this skydive than it usually does – Aikins was attempting the first jump from such a height without a parachute. His only chance of survival was to hit a net 100ft by 100ft), or about a third the size of a football field, suspended 60 metres above the southern California desert. The dive itself took a little more than two minutes. Aikins is a professional skydiver with more than 18,000 jumps under his belt and did some of the stunts in Iron Man 3. He comes from a family of skydivers – along with his father, grandfather and wife. The family owns Skydive Kapowsin near Tacoma, Washington.