I've been considering the possibility of making a Dwarven Drop Trooper squad in fortress mode, which would involve tunnels throughout the sky of the map with periodic retractable bridges. The Dwarves station on the bridge, a lever is pulled, then they drop into the fray to bypass ranged units.
I went to arena mode to test out the fundamental problem, i.e. Dwarves dying/injuring on impact from high falls, and I found something interesting: Slade is the most protective armour for this.
Now this may seem obvious, but think about it, Slade is super heavy. In theory a Dwarf should be crushed just wearing it, let alone dropping in it. However, when clad in Slade armour, the Dwarves took the least injuries. I tested from the top Z-Level over the initial floor (next to the magma pool, water pool, and river), and most of the Dwarves would live with only one broken/mangled part, and often would not be stunned.
For reference. Unarmored Dwarves will die on impact, or occasionally a tough one will live to bleed out from a shattered body. Testing with normal armour improves survivability, but they would still often be stunned/unconscious on impact, with a couple yellows and reds. Adamantine didn't seem to help much more than other armour, though it reduced the number of reds slightly and I believe stopped unconsciousness, but stunning still occurred, and Slade I've described.
The point is, weight doesn't seem to have an effect on the ability for armour to protect against falling. Also, the amount of armour pieces corresponded inversely with the number of injuries, once again, weight doesn't change anything. However, I'm not sure if my Drop Trooper idea is feasible, simply because stunning means death in the fray, and my Dwarves may still get stunned on arrival.