Stuntman Gary Connery entered the record books yesterday, becoming the first skydiver to land safely without using a parachute. Gary, 42, leapt 2,400 feet from a helicopter whilst wearing his specially made “wing suit†swooping towards an Oxfordshire field with 18,600 cardboard boxes arranged to protect his monumental landing.
The record breaking jump was sponsored by watch makers Bremont, who have a long tradition of aviation time pieces. The event took place over the watch company’s home town of Henley-on-Thames, adding a new page to the company’s history.
Gary Connery's jump was sponsered by Bremont
The flight only lasted around 50 seconds, whilst being cheered on by hundreds of onlookers, including Gary’s son Cali, 14, and wife Vivian, who was “relieved it was all overâ€.
The jump was originally planned for April, but week of wet weather postponed the jump, which got completed on a cloudless British summer’s day. Joining Gary Connery on the jump was fellow wing suit pilot Mark Sutton, who filmed the stunt on the way down, until the last moment when he deployed his own parachute, landing safely.
Minutes after landing Mr Connery said “I feel incredible, just completely elated.
“I’ve been training and planning for this record attempt for many years now and I am so proud to have achieved a world first.
“I want to thank everyone involved for their support and belief in me, because this really has been a team effort.â€
Gary Connery biography
As a teenager Gary competed at a national level in white water racing in Kayaks, moving onto ski racing in alpine disciplines in his early twenties.
Gary joined the army at 23, where he moved onto parachute jumps, skydiving and BASE jumping. Since then he has done over 880 skydives and 450 BASE jumps. Since completing his first wing suit jump 8 years ago, this has been his focus.
After getting registered as a stunt man since November 1997, he has performed many coordinated falls, mainly onto cardboard boxes, with a 100% safety record.
Some notorious stunts include:
• The film ‘The Beach’ starring Leonardo Di Caprio doing a waterfall jump.
• Doubling for Gary Oldman on ‘Dead Fish’, jumping from Tower Bridge onto a box rig on a moving boat.
• Falling from a car as it goes over a waterfall on ‘Indiana Jones’, doubling for John Hurt.
• Doubling for Rowan Atkinson in ‘Johnny English Reborn’ which sees Gary jumping from a helicopter from 1,800 feet in Megeve, France.
• BASE jumps of note include The Eiffel Tower, Nelsons Column, The London Eye, inside the Millenium Dome, Beachy Head and the Hilton Hotel Park Lane London.
Banks Lyon stock a large range of Bremont watches, and for the full range on Bremont's website visit www.bremont.com