Today in TechGoogle convinced the FAA to change its rules for I/O skydiving stunt
If you saw the ridiculously cool Google Glasses stunt that sent a handful of skydivers plummeting towards the ground to deliver a special package during the company's I/O conference keynote, you were probably just as stunned as the rest of us. As we here at Tecca watched the event unfold live, we discussed the legality of the dive and wondered how Google got official clearance to pull it off. The answer? They had the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) change its own rulebook.
You see, the airspace around San Francisco falls under "Class B" rules, meaning pilots need written permission just to cruise around the area, much less act as a skydiving platform. According to TechCrunch, getting clearance to fly in the area isn't particularly difficult to get, but the rules state that zeppelins — like the airship that Google was using — are not allowed to open their doors while in the air. But when you're one of the world's largest companies, you don't simply play by the rules... you change them.
Google worked closely with the San Jose branch of the FAA to review the current laws regarding airships and convinced them to tweak the rules enough to allow the skydivers to swing the door open and make the jump. Once the pesky legal hurdles were out the way, the stunt went off without a hitch, and will likely be remembered as one of the coolest keynote surprises for many years to come.
This article originally appeared on Tecca
More from Tecca:
