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You might recall Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner's 2012 jump from a 24-mile-high balloon capsule, a height of 127,852 feet. He broke not only an altitude record, formerly set by a U.S. Air Force pilot, Col. Joe Kittinger, in 1960, but also a record for speed of descent, breaking the sound barrier on his plummet to the New Mexico desert.

As NPR's Dana Farrington wrote of the feat on Oct. 14, 2012, Baumgartner's accomplishment was "the highest jump, the longest distance free fall and the fastest velocity" (Mach 1.24).

It begins with Baumgartner taking directions from Kittinger in mission control. Kittinger directs him to disconnect his oxygen hose and step to the exterior ledge of the capsule.

After the brief conversation, Baumgartner stands at the precipice and says: "I wish you could see what I could see.

"Sometimes you have to be really high up to understand how small you are. I'm coming home now," he says.

Very Good Quality HD video


[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=dYw4meRWGd4[/youtube]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/201 ... ecord-jump" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Increidible no matter how many times you watch it.

I watched it live the day of and it scared me, i couldnt imagine jumping off a roof much less from the outskirts of space. What i was amazed at was his perfect landing.

Joe Kittenger also broke Mach but that feat and his altitude were not recorded as records due to the USAF not allowing the Institut Aeronautique et Spatial to add instruments and "officially document" the event. Also it was an "experiment" to see if a man could survive a bailout at that altitude. Oh yeah, he did it with a leaky glove effectively (and thankfully temporarily) disabling a hand.

My step-dad knows him and I got a personalized and signed copy of his book, Come Up and Get Me for Christmas two years ago. Great read, especially when you find out the origin of the title.

Having done a bit of sky diving, I can tell you when you're so high up the fear of heights disappears as the environment is so alien that height isn't part of the scenario.

Abraham wrote:Having done a bit of sky diving, I can tell you when you're so high up the fear of heights disappears as the environment is so alien that height isn't part of the scenario.

I figured that would be the case, but also figure that at some point I will be able to tell how high I am and at that point it would begin causing some serious issues.

BTW, very cool video and feat.

Way cool! Never get tired of watching that jump.

I certainly appreciate the epic magnitude of his feat, but speaking for myself I just can't imagine jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft. More power to him! I'm not scared of heights, not with all the flying I do for work, but its kind of nice having a floor below me. Even if the ground is 40,000 feet lower than that.

Strangely, submarines are another matter.....

AndyC wrote:

lonewolf wrote:I certainly appreciate the epic magnitude of his feat, but speaking for myself I just can't imagine jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft.

There are no perfectly good aircraft - that's the flaw in your logic ;)

When I first joined the Air Force, I dreamed of becoming a pilot... Then I started meeting aircraft mechanics.

Amazing video!

AndyC wrote:

lonewolf wrote:I certainly appreciate the epic magnitude of his feat, but speaking for myself I just can't imagine jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft.

There are no perfectly good aircraft - that's the flaw in your logic ;)

I have jumped both tactically and as free fall (just a few of the latter). My step dad is a high time Air Force (I calculated his hours as adding up to three and a half years). Much of that time was with MAC. He was gigging me about being airborne and asked the tired old, "Why would you jump out of a perfectly good airplane?" Without missing a beat and as deadpan as I have ever been fired back, "If you've ever flown with a MAC pilot, you'd know." My BIL who was there and a retired Cobra pilot, laughed out loud. The only time I have seen him move beyond a smirk.