Skydiver breaks sound barrier

CBC News ^ | October 14, 2012 | CBC news

[Timber Rattler]

Extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner made a death-defying free fall that made him the first skydiver to break the sound barrier, according to organizers.

In a journey that lasted over nine minutes, he fell at a speed of 1,342.8 km/h, which broke the sound barrier — 1,200 km/h. That amounts to Mach 1.24, which is faster than the speed of sound. No one has ever reached that speed wearing only a high-tech suit.

Baumgartner, now known as 'Fearless Felix', has broken the record for the highest free fall ever, the fastest free fall and the highest manned balloon ride, said organizers.

[Timber Rattler]

I watched it live yesterday on the Discovery Channel. This guy has some big cajones. Original record holder Joe Kittinger (USAF retired) was his CAPCOM, which was ultra cool!

[Timber Rattler]

VIDEO of the actual jump

[Berlin_Freeper]

Free-fall world record with 23-mile jump

[Loud Mime]

I have over 500 freefall jumps, my highest from 15,500.

That said, it took a lot of guts to do this, from point A to the jump. Wow!

[rawcatslyentist]

The speed of sound varies slightly depending on temp and humidity/pollution.

At the altitude he "broke" it, was there even enough atmosphere to transmit sound?

Did he make a vapor cone?

[Smokin' Joe]

bfl

[Moose4]

Not really and no. He said he didn’t feel a thing when he passed Mach 1. Of course, he was trying to pull himself out of a flat spin at the time...

}:-)4

[Loud Mime]

A better article for the jump is HERE.

Kittenger's long freefall is still the record. Felix had a greater fall speed, but opened his parachute (deployable aerodynamic decellerator in military terms) early.

[JimmyMc]

The only person to have a faster free fall than Felix is Barack Obama. He will also be in a tailspin after the elections.

[Loud Mime]

I wonder what Robbie Maddison thinks of this jump.

[Loud Mime]

Some Brits are complaining that the money spent on this jump could have been better spent on health care and cancer research.

[Northern Yankee]

Chuck Yeager also broke the sound barrier again yesterday, on the anniversary of his flight of the first historic flight to break the sound barrier.

He did it in an F-15 over Edwards AFB.

[Berlin_Freeper]

My sister died of cancer at age 38. I survived cancer at age 47. Yet still, I disagree.

[bmwcyle]

bttt

[djf]

Only one outcome could have been better.

If he landed on his head...
full speed

I guess this is what people do if they can’t make the cut on DWTS.

[Puddleglum]

Cool! Makes me miss the good old days when the USA had an adventurous space program. I know the two are not related, but seeing him in his suit reminded me of how great the USA space program used to be.

[hadaclueonce]

To all the naysayers out there that are not impressed and want to find something something negative about this event. Think about this.

At least it was NOT paid for by the US Postal Service like the bike racing team that they supported in the past.

Just saying private enterprise paid for this.

[Eye of Unk]

I back you up on that, kinda shows the mentality of some people when they would rather bemoan no equality to the poor massee because some try to achieve success, in other words ridiculing those that do work harder, take risks, and perform goals rarely done by the be moaners.

They would rather nobody do anything so all will have a half full belly, a cellphone and a debit card.

[hadaclueonce]

“I wonder what Robbie Maddison thinks of this jump.”

I bet that Robbie would tell you the jump down was worse than the jump up.

Both an impressive feat.

[elcid1970]

Chuck Yeager is still with us! That just adds to the good news of this latest triumph of the human spirit!

Excelsior!

:^)