Skydiver to break records with space dive

telegraph.co.uk ^ | 23 Jan 2010 | Richard Gray

[kingattax]

Austrian-born Felix Baumgartner will plummet 125,000 feet in a fall that will see him break the sound barrier.

His jump, which is being assisted by former Nasa and US Air Force engineers, will feature in a documentary to be shown on BBC Two later this year.

[kingattax]

even if he is successful, marcia coakley will always hold the all-time freefall record.

[thulldud]

Col. Kittenger jumped from 102,800 feet to set the record, which was in, what, 1957?

Of course, Kittenger made a safe parachute landing. Coakley just (metaphorically) cratered.

[Trueblackman]

Possible 2010 Darwin Award Nominee in the making.

[paul51]

"This is a fascinating blend of scientific challenge and human endeavour."

and lunacy

[Hexenhammer]

Zing!!

The view up there just looks amazing. I’m rather surprised there isn’t a business that takes passengers ultra-high up like that, just for the view. Like a budget version of that Virgin Galactic space flight.

[concretebob]

Maximum speed of a human body in freefall is 236 MPH.
Thats "Terminal Velocity". How's he gonna exceed 655 MPH?

[HerrBlucher]

No more lunacy than Chuck Yeager strapping on thousands of gallons of rocket fuel to break the sound barrier. If not for “lunatics”, there would be very little advancement in flight. God bless this courageous soul.

[HerrBlucher]

He will achieve that speed before he gets to significant air and thus friction to slow him down.

[concretebob]

Terminal Velocity

[chimera]

That is in the lower atmosphere where there is significant air resistance. If he makes it he would eventually slow down to something close to this terminal velocity, but probably somewhat different because of the initial conditions.

The problems discovered in Project Man High and Project Excelsior involved stability of the falling body. There was a tendency to go into a potentially fatal flat spin during the long free fall period. Kittinger solved this with deployment of a relatively small stabilizing chute after an initial free fall period. I hope these guys remember those lessons.

[stormer]

"Say, is that a crash helmet you're wearing?"

"Oh, I hope not!"

[concretebob]

On 16 August 1960, US Air Force Captain Joseph Kittinger entered the record books when he stepped from the gondola of a helium balloon floating at an altitude of 31,330 m (102,800 feet) and took the longest skydive in history. As of the writing of this supplement 39 years later, his record remains unbroken.

714 MPH...I stand corrected. There were crazy people around before me.

The air is so thin at this altitude that it would make for a moderate laboratory vacuum on the surface of the earth. With little atmosphere, the sky is essentially black and the sun's radiation is unusually intense despite polar temperatures.

[MV=PY]

Terminal velocity is the balance between the force of air resistance and the force of gravitational pull.

Most calculations of terminal velocity are at a pressure of 1 atmosphere. This guy’s going to be in a relative vaccuum at that height.

[flowergirl]

Did he beat Nick Piantanida’s record?? My father in law’s cousin.. book is called magnificent failure

[Travis McGee]

Kittenger was the MAN! I saw a documentary on it. What a stud! His pressure suit failed on one hand, and he didn’t abort early, he kept going, and jumped with one good hand. He was NOT going to be denied his space jump!

[vetvetdoug]

I got to meet and fly with Col. Kittenger once. He was quite a character and really nice gentleman. He flew me over my farm. He also had quite a sense of humor...before we landed he shut the engine down on the plane and restarted it right before landing...

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

From your source:

Joe Kittinger: "An hour and thirty-one minutes after launch, my pressure altimeter halts at 103,300 feet. At ground control the radar altimeters also have stopped-on readings of 102,800 feet, the figure that we later agree upon as the more reliable. It is 7 o'clock in the morning, and I have reached float altitude …. Though my stabilization chute opens at 96,000 feet, I accelerate for 6,000 feet more before hitting a peak of 614 miles an hour, nine-tenths the speed of sound at my altitude."

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

Maximum speed of a human body in freefall is 236 MPH. Thats "Terminal Velocity". How's he gonna exceed 655 MPH?

Terminal velocity and the speed of sound are dependent upon air density.

Do a search on "Coffin Corner". At the altitudes the U-2 flies, stall speed and mach buffet are only about 10 knots apart. (See: Lockheed U-2)