A casemaker is going viral for a stunt video involving its RhinoShield AirX iPhone case and a 100,000-foot drop from space in which an iPhone 17 Pro survived. The attempt even garnered a Guinness World Record.
The stunt took place when RhinoShield dropped the phone from a high-altitude balloon at 30,607 meters (or 19 miles) above Kiruna, Sweden. The phone didn't have a parachute or any kind of safety net.
The phone fell for 25 minutes through temperatures measuring between -40 degrees Fahrenheit and 140 degrees. It took a recovery team 5 hours to find the phone. Allegedly, it still worked and could make calls and take photos.
Guinness confirmed it with the title of “Highest Drop of a Mobile Phone in a Phone Case (Natural Landforms).” According to the company, it took a year to prep for the drop and they teamed up with a professional aerospace company costing $500,000.
How the case protected the phone
The stunt is fun, but it didn't really need to be done. They could have dropped the phone from a 30-foot-tall tree and achieved the same results.
A smartphone has a relatively low mass, and coupled with high aerodynamic drag, the iPhone hits terminal velocity very early in the drop. After hitting maximum falling speed, the height doesn't really matter anymore.
Plus, the phone landed on a relatively forgiving forest floor with lots of plant life to cushion it even more.
Still, the AirX is built from thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) plastic with a 360-degree air-cushion chamber and a three-point compression structure that RhinoShield calls ShockSpread. In a MacTrast review from March, the company claimed that internal testing showed the compression feature could reduce a 4,000-gram impact down to just 775grams. Allegedly, it survived 24,000 tumble impacts without any phone cracking.
If this stunt got you interested, the RhinoShield AirX costs $62 (or over 8,000 cases to recoup the $500,000 stunt price). It should survive your bog-standard daily life drops like parking lots, kids, and even a random fall from a balloon.
