Now, Corliss has set his sites on an even more radical departure: “becoming the first man to jump from a plane and land (alive) without a parachute.”

“‘Everybody has a gift, something they’re good at — and my gift is fear. I can do things with fear. When most people are crippled by fear, on the ground, puking, that’s when I’m at my best,’” reports Bill Gifford of Men’s Journal

photo credit: robertpaulyoung

Jason Paur of Wired writes about David Clark’s supersonic suit that will help keep Felix alive during the jump: “Baumgartner (like Kittinger did) is working with several scientists to research new, safer suit designs for pilots and future space travelers. The hope is to develop the next generation of full pressure suits that would help increase survival if the need to bail out of a spacecraft should ever arise at extremely high altitudes.”

“‘We’re looking at this as a way to really show BASE jumping in a different light. We’re trying to put a different face on it, to show people that it’s an actual sporting endeavor and this is a real expedition,’ said Scott, 35, returning to Baffin for the second time since 2008. ‘Some of the hikes we’ll be doing might take 12 hours to reach jumps as high as 5,700 feet. There’s nothing comparable to that around here.’” reports Scott Willoughby of The Denver Post

Two men attempt a world record BASE jump off the world’s tallest building: Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the tallest man-made structure ever built (2,717 ft).

Produced by buzzfilms

In 2006 two professional kayakers–Montana’s Seth Warren and Tyler Bradt–decided to travel (and paddle) more than 21,000 miles (Alaska to Argentina) in a red Toyota firetruck (“Baby”) which was retrofitted to run on vegetable oil. The highly regarded film Oil + Water documented their environmental activism and adventure.

Recently, Seth Warren has been touring the country promoting his second film, Nature Propelled, which he describes to Planet Green as film that “shows how different sports are connected through the life cycle of water…”

Produced by Nicholas Franczyk

photo credit: krossbow

A young Australian BASE jumper who goes by the adopted name “Lucky Chance” attached a climbing rope to a rock outcropping somewhere in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, launched from his homemade “Death Swing,” then performed a double back flip into a BASE jump.

Lucky Chance is pretty sure he’s the first Australian to ever perform the challenging maneuver.

“Although Mr Chance admits park rangers might not have been happy with his latest jump — he said he believes he has done nothing wrong.

‘Taking into account my ability, and the safety precautions I took, it was safe,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t doing anything wrong and I wasn’t hurting anybody,’” reports Henri Paget of NineMSN.

photo credit: divemasterking2000

Austrian-born skydiver and world renowned BASE jumper Felix Baumgartner (“Fearless Felix”) plans to ride a helium balloon to an atmospheric height of 120,000 feet, and then jump–all in an attempt to surpass the 50-year record for the highest-altitude parachute jump set in 1960 by retired U.S. Air Force pilot Joe Kittinger.

“Baumgartner could set new records for the highest manned balloon flight and the longest free fall as well as become the first person to break the sound barrier without a protective craft. Baumgartner said he would exceed the speed of sound within about 35 seconds of free fall but would not pull his chute for another five minutes… Kittinger’s advice to his successor: ‘Have fun, enjoy it, and tell us all about it when you get down,’” reports John Matson of Scientific American.

Red Bull is sponsoring Baumgartner’s jump as the  Stratos mission: