Posts tagged stratospheric jump
New York Times Article on Red Bull Stratos
Ordinarily, Felix Baumgartner would not need a lot of practice in the science of falling.
He has jumped off two of the tallest buildings in the world, as well as the statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro (a 95-foot leap for which he claimed a low-altitude record for parachuting). He has sky-dived across the English Channel. He once plunged into the black void of a 623-foot-deep cave, which he formerly considered the most difficult jump of his career.
StratoCat – Joseph W. Kittinger and the Highest Step in the World
On August 16, 1960, US Air Force Captain Joseph W. Kittinger literally jumped into the pages of aviation history books when he stepped out of a balloon gondola at an altitude of 102,800 feet. For more than four and a half minutes, he plummeted towards the ground before finally opening his parachute at an altitude of 18,000 feet. No person had ever parachuted to Earth from a higher altitude.