Skydiver makes final preparations to jump without parachute

LOS ANGELES (AP) Skydiver Luke Aikins figures his next leap into thin air will start pretty much like the thousands that preceded it, only with one small but significant difference.

This time when he steps out of a plane at 25,000 feet he won't take his parachute with him.

If all goes according to plan, he will land two minutes later in a trawler-like fishing net 20 stories above the ground and about a third the size of a football field.

His jump is being broadcast live on Fox TV at 8 p.m. EDT Saturday.

The 42-year-old daredevil has made 18,000 jumps.

He's done stunts for ''Ironman 3'' and other movies and trained elite skydivers.

But on Saturday he'll become the first skydiver to go from plane to planet Earth without a parachute.