The longest jump: Joe Kittinger held the highest sky divin record, then helped break it

Yahoo ^ | April 24, 2014 | Jonathan Karl, Richard Coolidge and Jordyn Phelps

[C19fan]

Col. Joe Kittinger may be one of the most interesting people alive today.

Not only did he set the record for the highest and longest skydive in history in 1960, but the 85-year-old retired Air Force colonel was also the first person ever to observe the curvature of the Earth from the edge of outer space, and the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in a helium balloon.

Kittinger sat down with “Politics Confidential” to discuss his life’s many adventures and what it was like to help break his own skydiving record in 2012 as part of the Red Bull Stratos project, during which he served as a mentor and capsule communicator to the current highest skydive record holder, Austrian Felix Baumgartner.

[C19fan]

If you live in the DC area there is an exhibit, not sure if it still there, at the Air and Space museum of the capsule and suit used in the Baumgartner jump.

[alancarp]

[vetvetdoug]

I flew with Kittinger in his DeHavilland once. He's the real deal and quite a character.