The fastest speed I’ve reached on my own NIU electric scooter is just shy of 50 mph (80 km/h). But JT Holmes has tripled my best effort – with the help of gravity. As part of NIU’s #MakeLifeElectric campaign, he recently rode an electric scooter out the back of an airplane and (safely) back down to earth.
JT is a multi-sport professional athlete and stunt performer who teamed up with extreme cameraman and professional free-fall photographer Craig O’Brien to film the stunt.
As JT explained, “Craig is one those guys you call when you want to make yourself look good. I just know he’s going to get that shot.”
And that’s exactly what Craig did, as you can see in the impressive video below, where JT rides the NIU electric scooter out the back of the plane.
If the exit shot looks familar, à la that HALO jump scene from Mission Impossible: Fallout, that’s no accident. Craig’s the guy who filmed that jump, too.
Check out the stunt below.
To prepare for the jump, JT had to familiarized himself with the electric scooter in order to perform the stunt safely.
He’s a seasoned skydiver, but riding an electric scooter out of the back of an airplane was still new to him.
The NIU was fully functional, and despite practicing the jump and camera shots in “dry runs” on the ground, the speed at which he rode out of the plane’s ramp still surprised the crew.
JT nearly barreled into Craig on the first run. You can see how Craig had to push off of JT as the pair exited the aircraft in the behind-the-scenes video below.
As JT explained in a statement provided to Electrek:
There was some mystery as to how it would all go down, but the one thing we knew was that the scooter and I would, in fact, go down at a high rate of speed.
The scooter got up to speed very quickly in the plane, which gave me a smooth exit. And the stunt went off without any close calls. It was a great team effort between the pilots, camera operators, director, and aerial videographer who jumped with me.
Photo by Jeff Vespa/@portraits
No one knew quite how the scooter would handle during free fall. Impressively, JT was able to hang on to the scooter in the air by gripping it with his legs and holding onto the handlebars.
The team made multiple jumps to capture various angles.
And to answer your burning question: Yes, the scooter is just fine. It made multiple jumps and landed safely each time.
I couldn’t see a parachute on the scooter, and my curiosity was killing me. Thankfully, the NIU team was merciful enough to share the landing secret with me on the condition that I didn’t spill the beans. So while I can’t tell you how they did it, rest assured that the fully functional scooter landed safe and sound each time.
While it would have been great to see the NIU scooter make this jump out of an electric airplane, that stunt is likely still a few more years down the road.
In the meantime, NIU is continuing to promote electric transportation and spreading EV awareness through fun campaigns like this one.
For me, I think I’ll keep my NIU NQiGT Pro electric scooter with both wheels on the ground. But I wouldn’t mind hopping a ride with the team on the next NIU stunt, wherever it may be!
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Author: Micah Toll
Source: Electrek
