News Central

Bremont Watch Company, is delighted to be supporting Henley based stunt man Gary Connery in preparation for his biggest stunt yet. In April 2012 Gary plans to make a new world record in being the first man ever to jump out of a helicopter with a wingsuit and land without deploying a parachute.

"THE BREMONT WINGMAN"

BREMONT WATCH COMPANY SUPPORTS STUNT MAN

GARY CONNERY

IN SETTING A NEW WORLD RECORD

March 2012

April 2012 will see Gary Connery realise a lifelong ambition of jumping from a helicopter 2,400ft above the height of the box rig over Ridge Wood to the ENE of Henley on Thames. Gary will drop for 3 seconds before his suit starts to fly, he will then accelerate to approximately 80mph. He will get into his tried and tested best glide position where the speed will decrease to 60 mph forward speed with a 22mph vertical descent rate. The flight to the box rig will be 1.4 km and as Gary approaches the box rig approximately 200ft away, he shall begin to flare bringing the speeds down to 50 mph forward and 15 mph vertical. The whole flight should last in the region of 50 seconds and will come to an end with Gary landing on a box rig.

Giles English " What Gary will be doing here has never been done and very hard to understand how it is possible but after meeting Gary I was quick to learn that he is a consummate professional who had been planning this jump for many years, naturally it is also wonderful that he is a fellow Henley man! The ability for man to fly and land with his own wings is part of every boy hood dream and we are proud to be supporting Gary in this world first. Timing will mean everything here."

Gary Connery "I am excited and overwhelmed at the prospect of sticking a new post in the runway of aviation history. I am 100% confident of my abilities/methods to achieve this landing on what will become a historic day. I am very pleased to be working with Bremont on this as we very much share the same principles, everything to do with this jump is about precision and timing. Working with the manufacture Tonysuits we have only now been able to develop the wingsuit technology to be able to do this jump, at this current pace of development the possibilities of future wing suit design will change the world of aviation." Written in a correct as of March 2012 www.bremont.com

The first wingsuit flight took place back in 1995 which sparked a whole new wave of possibilities for aviation enthusiasts and adrenalin junkies alike. Having lived a life of adventure in many different ways such a pursuit was of natural interest to Gary and he has since become a pioneer in the field. Gary is now ready to take this to the next level and cement this fact in the world record books – with some stiff competition out there Gary is determined to be the one to set this record.

Gary has personally helped in developing the suit which will be used for the flight in April making it a first of its kind from a technical point of view. Typically these suits are designed to fly as fast as possible but Gary is engineering a suit which will enable him to fly at slightly slower speeds thus enabling him to land without a parachute.

Bremont is very excited to be supporting Gary in accomplishing this remarkable feat. Not only will Gary be a fantastic ambassador for the brand in testing the timepieces 'beyond endurance' becoming yet another adventurer of sorts to test the Bremont timepieces in the 'field' but the aviation link is also particularly fitting.

GARY CONNERY BIO INFO:

As a teenager Gary competed at a national level in white water racing in kayaks, then in his later teens and into his early twenties competed at an international level in ski racing in the alpine disciplines, mainly downhill, competing for five seasons reaching 8th in Britain.

Gary joined the army, 3 para, at 23, where he started military parachuting, skydiving and BASE jumping. Since then he has done over 880 skydives and 450 BASE jumps. He did his first wingsuit jump over 8 years ago and has focused mainly on this since. In the last year Gary has spent lots of time in Italy, Switzerland and America jumping, both skydiving and proximity flying.

Gary has been on the UK stunt register since November 1997 and became a stunt coordinator in 2003; during that time he has performed and coordinated many falls, predominantly into boxes (he has in excess of 50 high falls mainly landing in cardboard boxes). In all of his stunts he has achieved a 100% safety record.

Gary 's most notorious falls/jumps include:

·        The film 'The Beach' starring Leonardo di Caprio doing a waterfall jump.

·        Doubling for Gary Oldman on 'Dead Fish', jumping from Tower Bridge into a box rig on a moving boat.

·        Falling from a car as it goes over a waterfall on 'Indiana Jones', doubling for John Hurt.

·        BASE jumps of note include The Eiffel Tower, Nelsons Column, The London Eye, inside The Millennium Dome, Beachy Head on a BMX bike and The Hilton Hotel Park Lane London.

·        Doubling for Rowan Atkinson on 'Johnny English Reborn' which sees Gary jumping from a helicopter flown by Marc Wolf from 1800ft in Megeve, France in January 2011 using a BASE parachute. He made seven jumps.

Please follow this link to Gary's IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0175224/

For one of Gary's test wingsuit flights please follow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLeHMxI1bwE

Gary Connery on the bridge at Henley-on-Thames