Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Skydriving

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the it's-the-sudden-stop-at-the-end dept.

SanLouBlues 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)"

37 of 329 comments (clear)

  1. anyone have an old beat up car I could borrow? by Metaldsa · · Score: 2, Funny

    I swear I will return it in good condition :)

  2. Yes, but can they aim? by CBNobi · · Score: 3, Funny

    "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)

    1. Re:Yes, but can they aim? by AntiNorm · · Score: 3, Funny

      any info on parachut clusters big enough for a greyhound

      You mean like a Beowulf Cluster of parachutes? :P

      --

      I pledge allegiance to the flag...
      of the Corporate States of America...
    2. Re:Yes, but can they aim? by polin8 · · Score: 3, Funny

      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.

    3. Re:Yes, but can they aim? by Zork+the+Almighty · · Score: 2, Funny

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

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

      --

      In Soviet America the banks rob you!
  3. So... by Phexro · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    1. Re:So... by gooberguy · · Score: 2, Funny

      ...how would you mark them?

      With the huge crater from your car, silly!

      D/\ Gooberguy

      --


      Karma: Meh (Mostly from meh.)
    2. Re:So... by Ogerman · · Score: 5, Funny

      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!

    3. Re:So... by Salsaman · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    4. Re:So... by dublin · · Score: 2, Funny
      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
      --
      "The future's good and the present is nothing to sneeze at." - Roblimo's last ./ post
  4. Sounds interesting... by Error-404NotFound · · Score: 2, Funny

    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!

    --
    -=Errors always defy logic.=-
  5. Re:So, let me get this straight by Yorrike · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    --

    Looks can be deceiving. Or CAN they?

  6. A new movie by CaptainMunchies · · Score: 2, Funny

    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::

    --
    Spam removed for the Internet's pleasure ...
  7. Obligatory Deep Thought by ElJefe · · Score: 5, Funny

    "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

  8. Yet another reason to love duct tape... by thelenm · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    --
    Use Ctrl-C instead of ESC in Vim!
    1. Re:Yet another reason to love duct tape... by yukonbob · · Score: 2, Funny

      > 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

  9. Acceleration by Damion · · Score: 2, Funny

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

    --
    http://ragnar.nilmop.com

    --
    Common sense is what tells you the world is flat.
  10. Re:"Gaining speeds of up to 140mph"? by teamhasnoi · · Score: 3, Funny
    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".

  11. Re:Save yourself 15K... by oyenstikker · · Score: 3, Funny

    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.

    --
    The masses are the crack whores of religion.
  12. did anybody else get the feeling.. by mandolin · · Score: 3, Funny
    .. while they were looking at the second set of pics, 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

  13. A first ever. by Bimkins · · Score: 5, Funny

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

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

    --



    If you smoke after sex, you're doing it too fast.
  14. It's a great place.. by deathcow · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...to wake up a drunk friend.

    1. Re:It's a great place.. by Cool+Hand+Luke · · Score: 2, Funny

      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...

  15. Read the article... by Zeinfeld · · Score: 5, Funny
    "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?

    --
    Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
    Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
    1. Re:Read the article... by kreyg · · Score: 5, Funny

      How many times do the cars miss the ground?

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

      --
      sig fault
  16. Flying cars.... by Jaysyn · · Score: 3, Funny

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

    Jaysyn

    --
    There is a war going on for your mind.
  17. Again: "Perspective" by cribcage · · Score: 5, Funny

    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

    --

    Please don't read my journal
  18. Seen on ebay... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    For sale:

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

  19. QOTD by Devil's+BSD · · Score: 3, Funny

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

    --
    I'm the Devil the Windows users warned you about.
  20. people aren't subtle enough these days by Trepidity · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    --
    10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
    1. Re:people aren't subtle enough these days by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Funny

      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.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  21. Re:"WarDrive" for wireless APs on the way down by BlacKat · · Score: 2, Funny

    Was that WarDrive or WarDive? ;o)

  22. Re:"Gaining speeds of up to 140mph"? by phorm · · Score: 2, Funny

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

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

  23. Re:"Gaining speeds of up to 140mph"? by DemiKnute · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    --
    .
  24. Re:Military by DarkHelmet · · Score: 3, Funny
    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!"

    --
    /^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
  25. Someone beat them to it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

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

    Isn't that called "Southwest Airlines"?

  26. This bus terminates at the next stop .... by antiRev · · Score: 2, Funny

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