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Daredevil 'birdman' glides across Channel
Ireland Online ^
| July 31, 2003
Posted on 07/30/2003 10:44:20 PM PDT by HAL9000
An extreme sports fanatic said today he felt great after he became the first man to cross the English Channel in an unpowered flight. Felix Baumgartner jumped from a plane about 30,000ft above Dover shortly after 5am and glided 22 miles across the Channel in a 10-minute flight wearing a specially-adapted suit with a wing-like carbon fibre fin attached to his back.
In freezing air temperatures, the 34-year-old Austrian began the flight at a speed of about 220 miles per hour before slowing to around 135 miles an hour.
Baumgartner made a crunching parachute landing at Cap Blanc-Nez, near Calais, in France. Within minutes of touching down he was smiling and posing for photographers.
It was pretty cold up there, he told Sky News. I still cant feel anything. But I made it, which is great. He said cloud cover meant he could not see where he was going and had to follow his two planes across the Channel.
For the last 2,000m I could see the other side and I knew I was going to make it, he said.
Baumgartner was equipped with cameras as well as highly-advanced data monitoring technology to ensure that he could be tracked during his journey.
His new wing had a span of 1.8 metres making it 10 centimetres bigger than his previous one with which he won a race against an aeroplane some weeks ago in the United States.
Baumgartner was the first man to parachute from the worlds tallest building, Malaysias Petronas Towers, as well as the statue of Christ in the Brazilian city Rio de Janeiro.
TOPICS: News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: baumgartner; englishchannel; extreme; felixbaumgartner; parachute; skydiving; spacediving; spacejump
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1
posted on
07/30/2003 10:44:21 PM PDT
by
HAL9000
To: HAL9000
He's pretty cool. Go
HERE for his website. Lots of flash intro and stuff. They have a picture of his glide wing under "newset projects"
prisoner6
2
posted on
07/30/2003 10:57:27 PM PDT
by
prisoner6
( Right Wing Nuts hold the country together as the loose screws of the left fall out!)
To: HAL9000
3
posted on
07/30/2003 10:59:19 PM PDT
by
isthisnickcool
(Thanks for the memories!)
To: HAL9000
Forgot to mention videos you can stream or d'load.
prisoner6
4
posted on
07/30/2003 11:00:23 PM PDT
by
prisoner6
( Right Wing Nuts hold the country together as the loose screws of the left fall out!)
To: prisoner6
I watched the video. This guy is like a superhero from a comic book. LOL! Thanks for the link!
5
posted on
07/30/2003 11:07:31 PM PDT
by
isthisnickcool
(Thanks for the memories!)
To: HAL9000
I'm not sure I would call this crossing the channel in unpowered flight with a 30,000 ft. (5+ miles) vertical boost at the start. If he had just done it off the white cliffs of Dover maybe but not when he needed powered flight to get up to the start to cross the 22 or so miles of the channel. It's impressive what he did nevertheless.
6
posted on
07/30/2003 11:13:13 PM PDT
by
xp38
To: HAL9000
I was talking to one guy that does a lot of parachuting, and he said that if you jump out of those rear door airplanes, facing forward, and you shape your body just right, you can actually create lift and go higher than the plane before all the forces equalize.
I got a feeling this stuff is going to be big. And I wonder if our Special Forces will find a use for it. It would make HALO jumps even sweeter. Dive down at 200 mph and then skim the tree canopy, until you pull your shoot well below radar :)
To: isthisnickcool
220MPH in that thin flimsy suit? - whoa - major shrinkage
To: Howlin; Ed_NYC; MonroeDNA; widgysoft; Springman; Timesink; dubyaismypresident; Grani; coug97; ...
Just damn.If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...
9
posted on
07/31/2003 3:08:07 AM PDT
by
mhking
To: xp38
A-greed.
10
posted on
07/31/2003 3:11:19 AM PDT
by
KCmark
(I am NOT a partisan.)
To: HAL9000
To infinity & beyond!!
Saw this on gma, real cool. I want one!! (And permission from my wife to do it!)
11
posted on
07/31/2003 5:00:27 AM PDT
by
ctlpdad
(How much does being a full time Viking Kitty pay?)
To: HAL9000
Looks like the birth of the next "extreme" sport. Snowboard and surfboard manufacturers should be retooling to add this to the product line. I'll bet there will be 20 variants of this for sale within a month. Add a leaf blower motor and a ducted fan and maybe you'll get a worthwhile boost in range.
To: Sunnyvale CA Eng.
Awesome
13
posted on
07/31/2003 5:21:15 AM PDT
by
Pikamax
To: Revelation 911
I saw the headline and keep thinking, "BIRRRRRRRRRRRRDDDDMAN!" (I've been watching FAR, FAR too much Cartoon Network lately...)
14
posted on
07/31/2003 5:48:24 AM PDT
by
mhking
To: mhking
(I've been watching FAR, FAR too much Cartoon Network lately...)
Something reminds me of this:
15
posted on
07/31/2003 5:57:11 AM PDT
by
ErnBatavia
(Bumperootus!)
To: HAL9000
16
posted on
07/31/2003 5:59:49 AM PDT
by
mommybain
(not Walmart greeter material)
To: ErnBatavia
Oh man, I'd forgotten about this guy.
17
posted on
07/31/2003 6:00:49 AM PDT
by
mommybain
(not Walmart greeter material)
To: mhking
To: PropheticZero
I got a feeling this stuff is going to be big. And I wonder if our Special Forces will find a use for it. It would make HALO jumps even sweeter. Dive down at 200 mph and then skim the tree canopy, until you pull your shoot well below radar :) Hmmm. Add a small engine (the cruise-missile program has gotten jet engines fairly small), and you have
Rocketeer
19
posted on
07/31/2003 6:29:43 AM PDT
by
SauronOfMordor
(Java/C++/Unix/Web Developer === needs a job at the moment)
To: isthisnickcool
"This guy is insane! Love him!"Definitely. How cool. What a ride that probably was. *turning a little green with admiring envy*
20
posted on
07/31/2003 6:32:48 AM PDT
by
eureka!
(Rats and Presstitutes lie--they have to in order to survive.....)
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