Skydiver to Fall 23 Miles, Break Sound Barrier

[Dan T.]

This is one crazy mofo...

From Dugald McConnell and Brian Todd, CNN

New York (CNN) -- 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.

His attempt will take him to an altitude where the atmosphere ends and space begins -- where blood boils at body temperature, and the air temperature could be as low as minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

The first step in the attempt will be riding a helium balloon to an altitude of 120,000 feet above sea level -- almost 23 miles -- higher than anyone has ascended in a balloon before.

Then, wearing a pressurized suit and oxygen tanks, he plans to jump out of his capsule for a five-minute fall back to Earth. Within the first 30 seconds, he expects to be falling faster than the speed of sound, which at that altitude is around 690 miles per hour. Crossing that barrier would mark a new test of the limits of the human body.

"This is what we want to find out: What happens to the human body when it breaks the speed of sound," Baumgartner said. "That's a big question mark."

To increase his chances of survival, his parachute is set to open automatically, even if he's unconscious or spinning so fast his hands are pinned by the G-force. He said his engineers are taking every precaution, testing out the suit in a wind tunnel and providing him with a backup chute, sealed gloves and boots, and an advanced helmet.

"This helmet also has face-shield heating to make sure your visor's not getting fogged up on the way down, because that would be fatal," he said. "If you don't see anything, you can't move anymore. You can't make decisions."

Still, the risk of the unknown remains. "If something happens, it happens fast," he said. "You can never say you're not going to get killed under any circumstances," but "we have a lot of solutions for emergency situations like this."

Rest of article: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/21/supersonic.skydive/

[RichmondRedskin88]

Freakin crazy SOB

[GhostofSparta]

I hope that suit has a very, very good heat shield with all the friction he's going to cause.

[fullnelson9999]

I would totally be down for this.

[China]

This is one crazy mofo...

From Dugald McConnell and Brian Todd, CNN

New York (CNN) -- An Austrian daredevil is planning to become the first person to break the sound barrier in a free fall, without riding in a vehicle.

Apparently Joe Kittinger has already done it so this guy wouldn't be the first.

Balloon Life. October 1995: 41. "On the descent Kittinger became the first man to exceed the Speed of Sound without an aircraft or space vehicle."

He might still get the records for highest and fastest, but as listed on that website a number of others have planned to beat the record and have not yet been able to complete their jumps. We'll see if this guy can do it.

[Dan T.]

Apparently Joe Kittinger has already done it so this guy wouldn't be the first.

He might still get the records for highest and fastest, but as listed on that website a number of others have planned to beat the record and have not yet been able to complete their jumps. We'll see if this guy can do it.

So the lede is incorrect? That's pretty bad, CNN.

[SauzzBozz]

AKA the Human Meteorite!

[WVUforREDSKINS]

I jumped at 14,000 ft and thought that was high. I free fell for 55 seconds before the chute was open. This guy will fall for about 8 minutes...awesome

[GibbsFactor]

I guess that brings "terminal velocity" to a whole new height. Wonder why he can get that much speed, I guess it's just the lack of resistance up there? :whoknows:

:geek:

[WVUforREDSKINS]

I don't know what speed I was falling at but yea, Gibbsfactor, I suppose it has something to do with how thin the air is up there

[frostyj]

I guess that brings "terminal velocity" to a whole new height. Wonder why he can get that much speed, I guess it's just the lack of resistance up there? :whoknows:

:geek:

From the link -

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."

In the vacuum of the upper stratosphere, his body accelerated to 714 mph, breaking the sound barrier."

"Between 90,000 and 70,000 feet, he experienced great difficulty in breathing. At about 50,000 feet, his free-fall speed had dropped to 250 miles an hour in the denser atmosphere."

[illone]

Over two years later this guy is still working on this jump.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/02/06/skydiver-to-break-sound-barrier-during-120000-foot-jump

[No Excuses]

A Darwin award awaits him.

[TradeTheBeal!]

Good luck with all that.

[DC9]

As someone who's jumped out of his fair share of perfectly good planes, choppers, etc... I would NEVER do this. I always hated jumping as it was, but this would just be a death wish. I wonder what kind of chute they are going to give this guy to slow him down enough to open his real chute that he'll land with.

The shock from the first parachute opening trying to slow him down from breaking the sound barrier would either snap his neck or do a total inversion (turn inside out and not work/slow him down at all).

This just seems stupid.

[Mad Mike]

As someone who's jumped out of his fair share of perfectly good planes, choppers, etc... I would NEVER do this. I always hated jumping as it was, but this would just be a death wish. I wonder what kind of chute they are going to give this guy to slow him down enough to open his real chute that he'll land with.

The shock from the first parachute opening trying to slow him down from breaking the sound barrier would either snap his neck or do a total inversion (turn inside out and not work/slow him down at all).

This just seems stupid.

It helps to understand it's been done before from only a slightly lower altitude... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kittinger

Skydiving technology has advanced 100 times over since then. Would I do it? Nah. But it's hardly a suicide mission.

On the other hand if it were not for my heart condition, I would LOVE to do this.

[HogNose]

I will stick with my two tandem jumps. The daredevil gene always fascinates me......I could never do something like this.

Here is the Kittinger jump. :whew:

[illone]

As someone who's jumped out of his fair share of perfectly good planes, choppers, etc... I would NEVER do this. I always hated jumping as it was, but this would just be a death wish. I wonder what kind of chute they are going to give this guy to slow him down enough to open his real chute that he'll land with.

The shock from the first parachute opening trying to slow him down from breaking the sound barrier would either snap his neck or do a total inversion (turn inside out and not work/slow him down at all).

This just seems stupid.

The air thickens as he descends and it slows him down to 250mph. There would be no reason for him to open the chute while traveling at 650-700mph in the outer atmosphere.

It will be interesting to see if this actually happens. Apparently the guy had issues getting used to the suit, had to see a shrink and everything to overcome his mental anxiety while wearing it. It's a three hour trip to get the balloon to 120K feet. That's a long ass plank to walk.

[I_Bleed_B&G]

Well he completed his 18 mile fall successfully....

http://news.yahoo.com/skydiver-felix-baumgartner-completes-18-mile-dive-134525801--abc-news-tech.html