A Supersonic Jump, From 23 Miles in the Air

New York Times ^ | March 15, 2010 | John Tierney

[UAConservative]

Ordinarily, Felix Baumgartner would not need a lot of practice in the science of falling.

He has jumped off two of the tallest buildings in the world, as well as the statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro (a 95-foot leap for which he claimed a low-altitude record for parachuting). He has sky-dived across the English Channel. He once plunged into the black void of a 623-foot-deep cave, which he formerly considered the most difficult jump of his career.

But now Fearless Felix, as his fans call him, has something more difficult on the agenda: jumping from a helium balloon in the stratosphere at least 120,000 feet above Earth. Within about half a minute, he figures, he would be going 690 miles per hour and become the first skydiver to break the speed of sound. After a free fall lasting five and a half minutes, his parachute would open and land him about 23 miles below the balloon.

At least, that’s the plan, although no one really knows what the shock wave will do to his body as it exceeds the speed of sound. The jump, expected sometime this year, would break one of the most venerable aerospace records. For half a century, no one has surpassed (one person died trying) the altitude record set by Joe Kittinger as part of an Air Force program called Project Excelsior.

[Not now, Not ever!]

Odd that the article never mentions that on August 16, 1960 Joe Kittenger hit 720 mph while descending, thereby breaking the sound barrier.

[Halgr]

To hit the speed of sound there is a thrust to weight ration that has to be considered.

I don’t think that mix is here in this situation.

[Halgr]

Hitting the speed of sound while outside the atmosphere is not the same thing as within the atmosphere.

[ATX 1985]

Wow, what a crazy SOB. Most of these experts really don’t know what is going to happen when Fearless Felix hits the speed of sound. One of them compared this to the beginning of NASA, it is too bad that so many people sensationalize the news about one person sacrificing for a dream they knew was a dangerous.
Look at all the soldiers that have died in order to advance freedom and hence our quality of life.

This article says that NASA doesn’t want to do this experiment because it is hard for them to justify a mishaps. Well, the Department of Defense does it just fine.

It is a damn shame that this so called good ‘ol days of NASA and even some military testing is over. The sacrifices of a few great men advanced the lives of millions.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Well, should look on the bright side. If Felix buys the farm, he gets his picture up on the wall behind the bar at Pancho’s Happy Bottom Riding Club.

[maddog55]

On August 16, 1960, Kittinger made his most famous free-fall. In this flight, he made it up to an altitude of 102,800 feet, breaking a previous record made by David Simons during Project Man High. He stayed at this altitude for about 12 minutes, which must have been very unpleasant – not only was it as cold as 94 minus Fahrenheit, but he had a severe pain in his right hand from a malfunctioning pressurized glove. Then, he jumped. He fell for almost five minutes before reaching a safe altitude to open his main parachutes and float down to the ground. In this time, he went as fast as 614 MPH – not quite breaking the sound barrier, as some claimed he had, but still achieving the fastest speed by man through the atmosphere. Kittinger’s high-flying career was not over after this record-breaking fall. In 1962, as a part of Project Stargazer, he spent over eighteen hours at an altitude of 82,200 feet, performing more research into the affects of the atmosphere on telescopes and the long-term effects of high-altitude environments on the human body. This was to be his last high-altitude balloon flight. Later on in life, Kittinger went on to fly in the Vietnam war, performing 483 missions before being shot down and held as a prisoner of war for almost a year. After he came back to the U.S., he proceeded to balloon across the country and entered into many ballooning contests. In 1983 he set a record for flying a balloon from Las Vegas to New York in under 72 hours. A year later became the first man to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in a balloon, setting a record for the longest solo balloon flight at 83 hours and 40 minutes. To this day, Kittinger is still involved with flight as an aviation consultant and sometimes barnstormer.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Yes, I know. I was just being cheeky.

[bmwcyle]

WOW!

[Haiku Guy]

[Haiku Guy]

[Haiku Guy]

Sorry... Double post...
FR is squirrely today...
So get used to it...

[familyop]

That’s a good idea. :-)

[valkyry1]

Well I hope he has a drogue chute to deploy just in case his theory (that he’ll be able to avoid a spin) does not work out.

[I Buried My Guns]

"...Hitting the speed of sound while outside the atmosphere is not the same thing as within the atmosphere...."

The atmosphere, technically, goes up to about 200,000 feet. Not as you and I know it, but there are indeed gaseous molecules up there, just hanging out, but held to earth by gravity.

In fact, low-orbiting objects hit these molecules and that is one reason they eventually fall from orbit. In the olden days, anyway.

[I Buried My Guns]

You redeem yourself
with a haiku - right on.
Now get back to work!

[Halgr]

I know that....but up that high for all practical purposes you are in space.

[fieldmarshaldj]

They have a book about it: “The Happy Bottom Riding Club” and if you haven’t seen it already, “The Right Stuff” featured it fairly prominently. The great Kim Stanley gave an excellent performance as Pancho Barnes.