Why, skydiving without a parachute, that’s what.

A handful of hardy sky-divers, inventors and BASE-jumpers (folks who jump from tall places, using parachutes to land) are all refining essentially the same piece of technology: a stiff body-suit that will allow one to jump safely from a plane or a high place–and land without a parachute.

(And, presumably, it makes your butt look great. That goes without saying.)

That’s according to a recent New York Times piece on the so-called wing suits, which typically feature nylon webbing between the legs, and between the arms and torso–to slow your descent … into madness! Wait, not that last part.

The Times quotes a physics professor’s blessing: “ ‘All of this is technically possible,’ said Jean Potvin, a physics professor at Saint Louis University and a skydiver who does parachute research for the Army. But he acknowledged a problem: ‘The thing I’m not sure of is your margins in terms of safety, or likelihood to crash.’ ”

It invokes the spirit of our dearly-departed national motorcycle daredevil: “Even Evel Knievel had the sense to pack a parachute when he climbed into his Skycycle X-2 to jump Snake River Canyon in 1974.”

And it quotes a wing suit wearer promoting his own good sense.

““Is there some crazy person out there who might beat me because he’s willing to do something more dangerous than me?” web suit guy Jeb Corliss asks rhetorically. “Yes, but I’m not that guy.”

Good to know. And fun to read.

Tags: BASE jumpers, BASE-jumping, California, EVEL KNIEVEL, Jean Potvin, Jeb Corliss, Long Beach, new york times, Saint Louis University, sky divers, Skycycle X-2, skydiving, Snake River Canyon, Southern California, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas, web suits