Skydiving Record

[baycat 0]

From wiki..

Capt. Joe W. Kittinger achieved the highest parachute jump in history on August 16, 1960 as part of a United States Air Force program testing high-altitude escape systems. Wearing a pressure suit, Capt. Kittinger ascended for an hour and a half in an open gondola attached to a balloon to an altitude of 102,800 feet, where he then jumped. The fall lasted more than 13 minutes, during which Capt. Kittinger reached speeds exceeding 600 miles per hour.

I was amazed at this stat, has anyone in the 45+ years since even got close to half that elevation? Guessing jumping out of weather ballons is not done as much. And with the speeds he was going how do you slow down with out failure of equipment or your body

[FlyinseivLP2 0]

There are several people now that are trying to break this record. The problem is funding mostly. An attempt like this costs millions of dollars. Kittenger had the govt paying the bills. I met him once and while talking about this record he told us it was only his 13th jump! As for slowing down, as you decend the air gets more dense and you slow down gradualy.BTW, he only reached 600mph or so because he was using a drouge. If he was in freefall it would have been much faster.

[skinnyflyer 0]

did you see the video
check it out here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MkB6NkQscI

"Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives."
A. Sachs

[ScottTX 0]

I dont know how many are aware of the following. I remember reading the book that was written about it in high school.

Great story, while it was about half the altitude of the man described in the first post. Its amazing how LONG he had to freefall because of the circumstances.

The following is a link to a brief article about this.

www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,937849,00.html

[longtall 0]

I remember the book "The long , lonely leap"
If I remember right on one jump ,a mal of the stabilization drouge, (the ballute) Kittinger spun like a propeller , passed out , then woke up later under the automatically deployed chute...............................................J..................

" 90 right, five miles then cut."---Pukin Buzzards

[MikeFB2764 0]

Good video. There is another posted on YouTube.com at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDJ6L2zYtpM&mode=related&search=

One thing I noticed: At about 2:16 in the video, you can clearly see that the rig he is wearing has a blast handle for the reserve ripcord.

Good Stuff!

[lekstrom10k 0]

What is the one on his reserve for then? The main is a standard C-9A and quarter panel 28 ft canopy in a standard rig. Piggy backs didnt come out until around 1964. Not known to many was that Captain Kittinger was shot down during Viet Nam and was a POW for about 4 years.By the way the blast handle was an easy way to pull either hand.

[BLee52 0]

Someone named Nick tryed it in the mid 60's.
after a number of attempts something went wrong at 50 grand he sucked vacume and died a few months later.
It put a dampener on the rest of the jumps I guess

[wmw999 2,121]

Nick Piantanida. You can do a search here or on the internet.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)