Jim “Bullet” Bailey was known in the drag racing community as the stuntman whose claim to fame was the ability to slide on his belly behind drag race vehicles for the length of a quarter-mile.
Jim “Bullet” Bailey was known in the drag racing community as the stuntman whose claim to fame was the ability to slide on his belly behind drag race vehicles for the length of a quarter-mile.
Bailey, also referred to as the Human Torpedo, began to do other stunts such as sliding through flaming hay bales. However, it was a stunt involving an airplane which proved to be his downfall.
Bailey had planned to become the undercarriage of an airplane but during flight, the hook [attached to a belt] holding him to the plane snapped and eventually he couldn’t hold weight while hanging from the plane’s axles. He plunged to his death in Hawaii.
Ironically, Bailey’s accident was on April 1, 1981.
This video shows one of his drag strip slide stunts featured on the show That’s Incredible.