Basejumper Felix Baumgartner to break sound barrier with leap from the edge of space

Telegraph ^ | 2-7-12

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

Basejumper Felix Baumgartner will attempt to break the speed of sound by freefalling from the edge of space, nearly 23 miles up, above Roswell.

It is the ultimate in parachute jumps: from the edge of space, Felix Baumgartner will leap from a balloon, plummeting to the ground 120,000 feet below.

Currently preparing in New Mexico, Baumgartner - who has previously made headlines with the lowest base jump ever recorded, off the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and for crossing the English Channel in freefall - was calmness personified as he explained what the incredible leap will involve.

He said: "We're going up to 120,000 feet in a pressurised capsule hanging underneath a helium balloon and at altitude the balloon will level off.

"I'm going to step off that capsule, fall down for a couple of minutes and hopefully I'm going to break the speed of sound."

To be more precise, after 35 seconds he will expect to break the sound barrier, and finally, at 5,000 feet he will deploy a parachute and – hopefully – land safely on the ground.

During his 10-minute journey to earth the Austrian will travel at more than 690 miles per hour inside a special suit, which must protect him from temperatures as low as -94 degrees F.

He will rely on its oxygen tanks as the air is too thin to breathe – and hope that the sheer force of the fall does not make him blackout.

[TalonDJ]

He missspoke. It is related to temperature but independent of density.

[ArrogantBustard]

clank clank clank

[thackney]

When you are over a mile up, it is noticeable at much less than significant distances.

The change in the speed of sound from sea level to one mile elevation is less than 2%.

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/sound.html

If you also have 30~40°F less temperature, you lose a couple more percentage points. The change is just not significant to believe you could measure the difference without measurement equipment.

[TalonDJ]

Do us a favor and don’t pretend to understand the physics of it. It is pretty clear the guy doing the jump knows more about it. When Kettering did this he got withing 20 or 30 mph and did not burn up. There is not much air up there to heat you up. To say nothing of the amount of COOLING you get from -90 degree air blasting past you. Plus the heating at mach 1 for a short period of time is not that much. Compared to the thermal undies he needs to survive the cold assent that heating is nothing at all.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Do us a favor? You took a vote amongst all repsonders here? Nice trick.

But anyway, I'll hold my opinions.

But you do me a favor and get back to me when this dude fails or dies in the attempt. Until then, nothing posted on this thread by anyone is worth a damn.

[GreenHornet]

Dang, I knew I should have read all the posts before posting a comment... ;-)

Great minds think alike.

[cpdiii]

The G forces I was refering to were those that a spinning body would be subjected to. I did not make that clear in my post. As long as he is stable it will not be a problem. If he starts spinning it could be a problem.

[beaversmom]

Joseph W. Kittinger - Skydiving From The Edge Of The World

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxfdC7U_mgQ

[thackney]

Thanks,

It will be interesting to see the results.

Interesting from a distance, not interesting enough to participate.

[gymbeau]

Thanks!

cheers,
Jim