It takes about 12 seconds for the human body to reach terminal velocity.  At that speed they will see the earth’s surface approach them at 177 feet or 54 meters every second.  These are the stories of a few survivors who have fallen from an aircraft, without opening a parachute... and survived!   The remarkable Juliane Koepcke   Nicholas Alkemade   RAF Lancasters   The Ju88 nightfighter     The Il-4   B17 Flying Fortress bombers on a mission over Europe   The B17 ball turret   Vesna Vulović and a JAT DC9   Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, SDASM, IWM and clipperarctic.  Other images are in the Public Domain or considered Fair Use.

It takes about 12 seconds for the human body to reach terminal velocity.  At that speed they will see the earth’s surface approach them at 177 feet or 54 meters every second.  These are the stories of a few survivors who have fallen from an aircraft, without opening a parachute... and survived!   The remarkable Juliane Koepcke   Nicholas Alkemade   RAF Lancasters   The Ju88 nightfighter     The Il-4   B17 Flying Fortress bombers on a mission over Europe   The B17 ball turret   Vesna Vulović and a JAT DC9   Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, SDASM, IWM and clipperarctic.  Other images are in the Public Domain or considered Fair Use.