Pictured: The moment 100 skydivers came together mid-air

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Pictured: The moment 100 skydivers came together mid-air to form a747-sized diamond


Last updated at 7:41 PM on 28th July 2008 Comments ( 3 ) Add to My Stories

For a few precious seconds these 100 skydivers linked up, thousandsof feet above Florida.
It was all the time they needed to break the world record for thelargest number to gather in a single formation.
One slip and their huge diamond of pinks and greens would havecollapsed, sending them crashing into one another and plummetingfrom the sky. Enlarge
Take two: The 100 skydivers were able to 'dock' together - grippingthe canopies of each other's parachutes - on their second attempt
Roughly the size of a 747 jet, the successful formation broke theprevious record of an 85-way canopy formation set in 2005.
A canopy formation, one of the most difficult manoeuvres forparachutists, is built by parachutists flying their parachutes inproximity to each other and then taking grips ("docking") on otherjumpers' parachutes.
The practice of building such formations is known by several names;canopy formations (CF), canopy formation skydiving (CFS) or canopyrelative work( CRW or CReW).
The 100 jumpers were able to join together on a second of twoattempts, using their hands and feet to hook up to adjacentparachutes.
The skydivers exited five planes flying at staggered altitudes toexecute the formation. Enlarge
Sparkling: The diamond formation, made of 100 skydivers jumpingfrom five different planes, is roughly the size of a 747 jumbo jet
The stunt took seven years of planning and training. Each skydiverhad to learn how to link up with his lower neighbours by lockinghis feet into their lines and grabbing their canopies with his armsextended behind him.
Brian Pangburn, a participant and one of the organisers of therecord jump, explained the technical complexities behind therecord.
'The canopy formation is probably only done by about five per centof skydivers in the world,' explained the 43-year-old.
'The planning for this was very precise.
'We had five planes, three Otters and two CASAs, which carried thejumpers.
'The way you build it is that the gut on top starts and then hegrabs the guy coming from underneath and so on. So we actuallybuilt it from the top going down.
'The first plane, which was at 21,000 ft carried the first ninejumpers. They pulled their cords immediately after exiting theplane to get into position. Enlarge
Starburst: The formation begins to break apart - the most dangerouspart of the stunt
'Exactly two minutes later we had another plane empty out the next25 jumpers and two videographers from 18, 000 ft.
'Two minutes after that at 15,000 ft we had another aircraft withanother 25 jumpers.
'And then at 12, 000 ft we had the last two planes carrying 20 and21 jumpers.
'It took us 11 minutes from the moment the first jumpers exited towhen everyone hit the ground so we didn't have much time.
'We also knew we had to break apart at no lower than 4,000 ft sothat everyone to land safely on the ground.
'It was close but we got the record just at the last moment.'

Using specially designed advanced technology and aerodynamic PDLightning CReW parachutes the jumpers were travelling at 1, 200 ftper minute.
The success of the formation was built around solid communication.
'Only three people out of the hundred could transmit messages - twoin the air and one from the ground,' explained Brian.
'Each docking had to be exactly right so the communication had tobe spot on.
'The most dangerous portion was breaking the formation which isknow as a 'starburst'.
'When we broke it down we send off the bottom row and startcounting backwards.'

Buckle up: The skydivers in one of the five planes prepare for thedangerous jump
For Brian one of the hardest tasks was to find enough participantsto break the world record.
'The canopy formation is probably only done by about five per centof skydivers in the world,' explained the 43-year-old.
'It was very difficult for us to find the talent and we had to lookaround the world to get this record done.
'Fifty-six per cent of the team were from America, the other 44 percent were from countries all over the globe - Norway, Sweden,Belgium, Germany, Russia, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil,Egypt, Argentina and Canada.'

Brian, who is also a member of the US Skydiving team and trainscanopy formations all over the world, has been part of theorganising team since 2000.
'I got involved in the 100 way record because after the Germansbroke the 53 record back in 1996 they proclaimed it to be aphysical impossibility to build anything larger.
'That sounded like a challenge to me so we decided to see how bigwe could go.
'But we never dreamed of going to 100 until 2003 when we put up a70 way and then in 2005 we got the world record 85 way.
'It wasn't until then that we thought 100 might actually be doable.
'Over the years we have gained a pretty good group of people fromaround the world who could get it done.
'As we got more and more credibility we were able to attract betterpeople from around the world.'

However such was the skill levels involved, Brian and his team hadto assemble the best skydivers in the business - from all over theworld.
'We started the training camp in February and we would invitepeople from around the world to what we called a try out/rainingcamp and we would evaluate their performance and we had a certaincriteria they had to meet.
'They had to dock with in a certain time period and they dockednice and smooth. Then we gave them a formal invitation toparticipate in the record.
'From the time we started in February I was only home 21 days. Wewere going around the world evaluating people it took a lot of timeto do that.'

Brian found that not only the language, but also the differentstyles of techniques played a large factor in deciding the finalteam.
'It is kind of difficult with the language barrier and with all thedifferent cultures of skydiving.
'Some people are used to doing things some ways and we ended uphaving to change a few mindsets to say we are going to go out anddo things this way. Everybody had to thinking the same way.
'Between the actual language communication and the techniques theywere two of our biggest obstacles that we had to face.
'Three of us went around to pick the talent and it was a difficultchore because there were a lot of talented people around the worldand some were better than us but we had to have the same techniquesin order to make this thing work.
'The Russian were talented but some didn't make the team becausethey wouldn't adopt the same techniques.'

Videographer Norman Kent documented the world record as heparachuted next to the formation.
'In the case of the 100 record my job was much more complicated,'said the 52-year-old.
'The concept of the 100 canopy is a little bit crazy. You jump outof an aeroplane and arrive and open your parachute and then you'regoing to go and mess with it so that is off the wall.
'I know a lot of skydivers look at them and say to these guys, areyou nuts?'

Despite the months of planning, Norman still had to work oninstinct to get the best shot.
'There's a lot of guess work involved in this type of photography,'he explains.
'This is a nerve wracking drama and you are in the middle of it.'