Daredevil 'birdman' glides across Channel

Ireland Online ^ | July 31, 2003

[HAL9000]

An extreme sports fanatic said today he felt “great” after he became the first man to cross the English Channel in an unpowered flight.

Felix Baumgartner jumped from a plane about 30,000ft above Dover shortly after 5am and glided 22 miles across the Channel in a 10-minute flight wearing a specially-adapted suit with a wing-like carbon fibre fin attached to his back.

In freezing air temperatures, the 34-year-old Austrian began the flight at a speed of about 220 miles per hour before slowing to around 135 miles an hour.

Baumgartner made a crunching parachute landing at Cap Blanc-Nez, near Calais, in France. Within minutes of touching down he was smiling and posing for photographers.

“It was pretty cold up there,” he told Sky News. “I still can’t feel anything. But I made it, which is great.” He said cloud cover meant he could not see where he was going and had to follow his two planes across the Channel.

“For the last 2,000m I could see the other side and I knew I was going to make it,” he said.

Baumgartner was equipped with cameras as well as highly-advanced data monitoring technology to ensure that he could be tracked during his journey.

His new wing had a span of 1.8 metres – making it 10 centimetres bigger than his previous one with which he won a race against an aeroplane some weeks ago in the United States.

Baumgartner was the first man to parachute from the world’s tallest building, Malaysia’s Petronas Towers, as well as the statue of Christ in the Brazilian city Rio de Janeiro.

[prisoner6]

He's pretty cool. Go HERE for his website. Lots of flash intro and stuff. They have a picture of his glide wing under "newset projects"

prisoner6

[isthisnickcool]

This guy is insane! Love him!

[prisoner6]

Forgot to mention videos you can stream or d'load.

prisoner6

[isthisnickcool]

I watched the video. This guy is like a superhero from a comic book. LOL! Thanks for the link!

[xp38]

I'm not sure I would call this crossing the channel in unpowered flight with a 30,000 ft. (5+ miles) vertical boost at the start. If he had just done it off the white cliffs of Dover maybe but not when he needed powered flight to get up to the start to cross the 22 or so miles of the channel. It's impressive what he did nevertheless.

[PropheticZero]

I was talking to one guy that does a lot of parachuting, and he said that if you jump out of those rear door airplanes, facing forward, and you shape your body just right, you can actually create lift and go higher than the plane before all the forces equalize.

I got a feeling this stuff is going to be big. And I wonder if our Special Forces will find a use for it. It would make HALO jumps even sweeter. Dive down at 200 mph and then skim the tree canopy, until you pull your shoot well below radar :)

[Revelation 911]

220MPH in that thin flimsy suit? - whoa - major shrinkage

[mhking]

Just damn.

If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

[KCmark]

A-greed.

[ctlpdad]

To infinity & beyond!!

Saw this on gma, real cool. I want one!! (And permission from my wife to do it!)

[Sunnyvale CA Eng.]

Looks like the birth of the next "extreme" sport. Snowboard and surfboard manufacturers should be retooling to add this to the product line. I'll bet there will be 20 variants of this for sale within a month. Add a leaf blower motor and a ducted fan and maybe you'll get a worthwhile boost in range.

[Pikamax]

Awesome

[mhking]

I saw the headline and keep thinking, "BIRRRRRRRRRRRRDDDDMAN!" (I've been watching FAR, FAR too much Cartoon Network lately...)

[ErnBatavia]

(I've been watching FAR, FAR too much Cartoon Network lately...)

Something reminds me of this:

[mommybain]

[mommybain]

Oh man, I'd forgotten about this guy.

[Revelation 911]

LOL

hey - here was a good "just Damn" story too

[SauronOfMordor]

I got a feeling this stuff is going to be big. And I wonder if our Special Forces will find a use for it. It would make HALO jumps even sweeter. Dive down at 200 mph and then skim the tree canopy, until you pull your shoot well below radar :)

Hmmm. Add a small engine (the cruise-missile program has gotten jet engines fairly small), and you have

Rocketeer

[eureka!]

"This guy is insane! Love him!"

Definitely. How cool. What a ride that probably was. *turning a little green with admiring envy*