Chegg.com asked Aerial Extreme if we could come up with a ingenious plan to help them market their scholastic used book service.

 

After a brainstorming session with Chegg officials, we came up with a strategy. We would have the UCLA Bruin’s mascot skydive into a high profile football game at the Rose Bowl and deliver one of Chegg's books to a waiting student on the field.

 

Confident we could overcome all the technical issues, Chegg approved the project and we went right to work.

 

The work included:

• Prepare the FAA paperwork for approval

• Design and order a custom Chegg parachute

• Prepare the costume for freefall

• Fabricate a freefall box to hold the book

• Hire a qualified pilot and plane

• Safely test jump all the equipment

• Organize the ground crew

 

The mascot costume modifications took a little work in order to make it airworthy. Testing it was a multi-step process that we employed in order to keep the stunt jumper safe.

 

We started by jumping just the costume body, then just the head. Once we were comfortable we jumped the entire costume.

 

When the custom dual skin logo parachute arrived, we began practice tests immediately. Once confident of safety, we added the costume and made more practice jumps.

 

The custom delivery box took a bit of ingenuity to make airworthy. We started by fabricating a steel box which was just slightly bigger than the book that Chegg wanted us to deliver.

 

We then fabricated a belly-mount harness to the frame with a safety release system in case the jumper needed to jettison the case.

 

Finally we covered the outer skin of the box with one of Chegg's own shipping boxes. The finishing touches included adding a secure closing mechanisim and matching orange paint for the interior box.

 

Chegg was quite impressed with how authentic our delivery box matched the original.