{"id":2517,"date":"2013-10-08T15:58:48","date_gmt":"2013-10-08T22:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/vitalvegas\/?p=2517"},"modified":"2023-03-29T07:08:23","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T14:08:23","slug":"the-machine-that-keeps-people-from-plummeting-to-their-deaths-from-atop-the-stratosphere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/vitalvegas\/the-machine-that-keeps-people-from-plummeting-to-their-deaths-from-atop-the-stratosphere\/","title":{"rendered":"The Machine That Keeps People From Plummeting to Their Deaths From Atop the Stratosphere"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Of all the items on our “Things We Don’t Comprehend and Never Will” list, this one’s at the very top: People, lots of them, voluntarily leap from the top of The Stratosphere in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

SkyJump Las Vegas is marketed as a “thrill ride,” but it’s basically just falling. Downward. Rapidly. Toward the ground, one of the most consistently hard things to land on, ever.<\/p>\n

SkyJump is wildly popular, though, so we ventured up into The Stratosphere’s tower to peek behind the scenes of all the plummeting “fun.” “Fun” in quotation marks, if you ask us.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The SkyJump control room. People be crazy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SkyJump is a controlled free fall (unless that’s an oxymoron) from 108 floors up. Riders are given a fancy skydiver-style suit and a quick safety lesson.<\/p>\n

Then, riders are connected to a high-speed “descender,” an imposing-looking contraption that has a wire spool on one end and a giant fan on the other.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The magical machine that stops your fall. Probably.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here’s a look at the descender in action.<\/p>\n

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