U.S. Air Force Captain Joseph Kittinger, August 16, 1960
Posted on 08/16/2009 10:10:03 AM PDT by Wardenclyffe
On August 16, 1960, Kittinger made his most famous free-fall. In this flight, he made it up to an altitude of 102,800 feet, breaking a previous record made by David Simons during Project Man High.
He stayed at this altitude for about 12 minutes, which must have been very unpleasant – not only was it as cold as 94 minus Fahrenheit, but he had a severe pain in his right hand from a malfunctioning pressurized glove.
Then, he jumped. He fell for almost five minutes before reaching a safe altitude to open his main parachutes and float down to the ground. In this time, he went as fast as 614 MPH – not quite breaking the sound barrier, as some claimed he had, but still achieving the fastest speed by man through the atmosphere.
(Excerpt) Read more at damninteresting.com ...
U.S. Air Force Captain Joseph Kittinger, August 16, 1960
First I’ve ever heard this...incredible. my pants would have been full seconds after I jumped.
The ride up would have scared it out of me.
Saw a wonderful program about this program on PBS.
I think he reached the speed of sound on his descent but felt no sensation of falling. Said it was if he was suspended & the Heavens were retreating. How amazing would that be...
That’s surprising. Every jump that I did, my stomach announced ‘AHHHH!! WE’RE FALLING!! SHHH****TTT!!!’
They were from *much lower* altitudes than Kittenger’s jumps. :-)
Very much a must-see museum.
Who took the pictures?
While attending Comm Officer school one of my classmates was a major who had survived an ejection from a B-58. He had been encased in the ejection shell but was banged up and no longer fit for flight duty He was attending Comm School and was destined to finish as a groound pounder!
While at Minot AFB I met a Lt Col who was now the Base Personnel Officer. He had survived an ejection from an SR-71. When I asked him at what altitude he was at he said around 60,000 feet! I advised him that I was the Base Top Secret Control Officer and he could tell me the real altitude.
He said, "Well we were crusing at about 116,000 when the poop hit the fan and we hit the silk!
Joe Kittinger also spent 11 months in the Hanoi Hilton during the Viet Nam War. A Florida native, Kittinger now lives in the Orlando area.
That's how I feel getting on the "Down" escalator...but usually I tuff it out
|
|
|||
Gods |
Glad he made it. The others who tried this experiment didn't. Bravo for bravado! |
||
|
· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
|||
I once tripped on the “up” escalator and fell down stairs for two and a half hours.
And I once turned on the shower & a rainbow came out.
No pot of gold, just a rainbow. But what's that got to do with anything. I have no idea.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.