On his 80th birthday, skydiving and aviation icon Bill Booth showed the world that it is never too late for a second chance at life. Among the 200 friends in attendance at his party in Deland, Fla., was Mr. Douglas, a 1941 DC-3 airplane. The most famous jump ship in history is airborne for the first time in decades after an engine failure forced an emergency landing 23 years ago. At the same time, Booth continues to stay airborne despite a serious health scare.
“I was walking into my den, and then I woke up on the floor,” Booth recalls. “No warning, no fade to black. Two days later, I’m having open heart surgery.
“Now Mr. Douglas has two brand new engines, just like I have my new heart. We’re both starting life again, roughly at the same time.”
Over the course of his life, Booth has revolutionized skydiving safety with inventions that have made the sport accessible to anyone of any age and any ability. All of his inventions we developed, refined and tested with jumps from Mr. Douglas.
“When we got Mr. Douglas back and flying, everyone had tears in their eyes going up. It’s very important to my life,” Booth says. “It’s neat that you can fall in love with a machine.”
Skydiving has been Booth’s passport to a lifetime of adventure. He’s jumped onto both poles, on all seven continents, over Mt. Everest and the Great Pyramids. His inventions were on the space shuttle, on Alan Eustace’s record-breaking jump from the stratosphere and in the new Orion capsule destined for Mars.
At 80, Booth still leaps from planes, explores underwater worlds, flies a rare seaplane, and drives a vintage 1940s barrel back Chris-Craft. But for everyday travel? He increasingly prefers the simplicity of Uber.
“As I get older, I do like being driven around,” Booth says. “All you have to do is get the app on your cell phone and type where you want to go.”
One of the biggest benefits of using Uber is the ability to see who your driver is and track their location.
“I hated taxis my whole life,” Booth says. “Wondering when they were going to come, trying to call up and see where they are. With Uber, I know where they are. I know who my driver is. They’re reliable and clean and it just takes the guesswork out.”
Bill Booth proves that if you want to keep moving, you have to keep moving
“I want to keep my independence. Motion is life. You stop moving, you die,” Booth urges.
Just like the freedom he gets from traveling with Uber, Booth relishes the freedom to continue skydiving on his birthday.
“I walked on Mr. Douglas as an 80-year-old man,” Booth says. “By the time I got lined up in the door, I didn’t feel a day over 40. When I got out of the airplane in free fall, I didn’t feel a day over 20. And then I realized that there’s no such thing as age in freefall.”
