Skydiver preparing for 120,000-foot supersonic fall

CNN ^ | May 21, 2010 | Dugald McConnell and Brian Todd

[Malone LaVeigh]

An Austrian daredevil is planning to become the first person to break the sound barrier in a free fall, without riding in a vehicle.

This summer in New Mexico, Felix Baumgartner hopes to make the highest, longest and fastest fall ever.

[Popman]

Since breaking the speed of sound depends on the air density one is passing though, at what point will the break the sound barrier?

Sea level ???

[umgud]

They don’t make an airplane big enough to hold all the people it would take to throw me out of it.

[bigbob]

This should be sponsored by Depends.

[11Bush]

Sea level ???

Hopefully before ground level.

[Redcitizen]

After the impact , its gonna take more than 6 million bucks to rebuild him.

[The Comedian]

Watch out for that first step! It's a doozy!

Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

>

[atomic conspiracy]

Joseph Kittinger at the start of his record-setting jump during Project Excelsior, August 16 1960.

[FredZarguna]

By the time he reaches the lower atmosphere, around a few thousand feet, he will not be travelling much more than 300 MPH -- if his chute does not open. He will probably need a breaking chute in order to get down to 110 MPH for the main chute not to tear parts of his body off, or shred.

He must break the sound barrier while his terminal velocity is over about 670 mph (at higher altitude the speed of sound decreases.) This suggests he must break the speed of sound somewhere near Kittinger's record, which would be somewhere around 90,000 feet.

[puppypusher]

I don’t a human body could break the sound barrier because its not aerodynamic enough to do it any more than the P51 mustang could break the sound barrier.

The P51 was just Not designed to do it.The only way aircraft can di it is with swept back wings.

No Matter his jumping altitude he will never break the sound barrier.

[ThomasSawyer]

"If you break wind at the same time you break the sound barrier, do you hear it? It’s another tree in the forest question."

Is it even humanly possible to break wind in such a scenario given what must be an extremely high 'Pucker Factor' situation.

[puppypusher]

I don’t Think a human body could break the sound barrier because its not aerodynamic enough to do it any more than the P51 mustang could break the sound barrier.

The P51 was just Not designed to do it.The only way aircraft can do it is with swept back wings.

No Matter his jumping altitude he will never break the sound barrier.

Pardon the spelling errors in my previous entry.

[Travis McGee]

Kittinger and Baumgartner are partnering in this venture, sponsored by Red Bull. I saw them on TV together, doing a joint interview. Baumgartner is giving total “you the man” props to Kittinger, and Kittinger is thrilled to be back in the limelight. BOth seem like classy guys with big nads.

[Travis McGee]

See above.

[Lurker]

BOth seem like classy guys with big nads.

It's not the size of their nads I wonder about. It's the size of their brains.

[Blood of Tyrants]

I wish him good luck.

[Travis McGee]

They both seem pretty smart to me, but.....

Baumgartner does all kind of crazy BASE jumping. He’s also flown a backpack jet. The kind with a tiny delta wing, where you bail out of a plane and zoom through the mountain passes.

[HerrBlucher]

Without guys like them, there would be very little advancement in aerospace. Yeager strapped himself to a bomb to break the sound barrier, and did it for a soldiers pay. These guys are amazing!

[Lurker]

Like I said. While I'm very glad the human race produces such people, and I'm even more glad that the US seems to have most of them, I wonder about their sanity.

LOL.

[this_ol_patriot]

He’ll need to wear a Pickelhaube.

[Rebelbase]

“The Bell broke the sound barrier in Yeagers case, Baumgartner is going to use his body. Could be interesting, but completely useless otherwise.”

The pressure suit will be breaking the sound barrier.