World Team is returning to Thailand and collaborating with the Royal Thai Air Force to organize a series of challenging skydiving world records in 2010 and 2011. 

This new Royal Sky Celebration is being conducted to honor His Majesty King Bhumipol Adulyadej in celebration of his 7th Cycle 84th birthday. In the Buddhist culture, with its 12-year calendar cycles, every 12th anniversary is a very auspicious occasion. His Majesty King Bhumipol, who is greatly revered by the Thai people, is also the world’s longest reigning monarch.

The entire Kingdom of Thailand will be celebrating His Majesty's birthday in many special ways. The skydiving events of the Royal Sky Celebration will play a significant role in these national celebrations.

January 2010: Guinness Book World Record for Largest Sequential Skydive
Skydivers: 252
Aircraft: Three C-130s flying in formation at 24,000 feet / 7300 meters
Location: Wing 23 RTAF Air Base in Udon Thani

Engineering: After the completion of the first formation, 48 grips will be dropped from the base 60-way and 48 lines of linked skydivers will fly intact to form a second formation with 12 spiral arms. A similar sequence with 106 skydivers was successfully completed during the 2008 Kaleidoscope Dives.

Strategy:  Following the completion of the 252-way sequential dive, World Team will shift into rehearsal mode to prepare for its 2011 assault on the large formation world record.  The Base-60 will work on building its formation quickly and precisely. The other 192 skydivers will dock on the base in designated configurations to test new elements of the 2011 formation. After evaluating the flying characteristics and build-times of the formations during these rehearsal jumps, World Team will determine the practical size for the world record formation in 2011. 

January 2011: FAI and Guinness Book World Record for Largest Freefall Formation
Skydivers: 500 (pending results of 2010 rehearsal jumps)
Aircraft: Five C-130s flying in formation at 26,000 feet / 8000 meters
Location: Wing 23 RTAF Air Base in Udon Thani

Setting a new FAI World Record is never easy.  Trying to add 100 skydivers to the large formation world record is unprecedented and is sure to challenge even the most talented World Team skydivers.   To help meet this challenge, World Team plans to incorporate the use of sophisticated technical equipment when conducting many elements of its jump activities. This should bolster the team's efficiency and improve safety throughout this record attempt.   As usual for World Team, safety will be Priority Number One.

December 2011: Guinness Book World Record for Largest Mass Freefall
Skydivers: 999
Aircraft: 8-10 C-130s, plus additional support aircraft
Location: RTAF golf course at Don Muang Airport in Bangkok

As if 500 is not enough, World Team will double its number of participants for this final event of the Royal Sky Celebration.  Experienced skydivers who may not be up for a 500-way will be welcome to join World Team for the largest freefall jump in the history of the sport.  More than 350 Thai skydivers will join World Team when exiting from a fleet of C-130 Hercules aircraft to set the new Largest Mass Freefall world record.

The number 999 has great symbolic importance to the Thai people. The official title of Thailand's highly respected monarch is "King Rama IX," so nine is considered to be a very auspicious number. During the week of His Majesty's 7th Cycle birthday, the mass freefall jump will be one of the featured highlights for the celebration of this special anniversary.