| masraum |
10-11-2010 12:43 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by dependencies
(Post 5609592)
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From Wikipedia
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Joseph William Kittinger II (born July 27, 1928) is a former Command Pilot and career military officer in the United States Air Force. He is most famous for his participation in Project Manhigh and Project Excelsior, holding the records for having the highest, fastest and longest skydive[1] and as being the first man to make a solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in a gas balloon. Serving as a fighter pilot during the Vietnam War, he was shot down and spent 11 months in a North Vietnamese prison.
he made a series of three extreme altitude parachute jumps from an open gondola carried aloft by large helium balloons.
Kittinger's first high-altitude jump, from about 76,400 feet (23,300 m) on November 16, 1959, was a near-disaster when an equipment malfunction caused him to lose consciousness.[2] The automatic parachute opener in his equipment saved his life. He went into a flat spin at a rotational velocity of about 120 rpm. The g-forces at his extremities have been calculated to be over 22 times the force of gravity, setting another record. On December 11, 1959, he jumped again from about 74,700 feet (22,800 m). For that leap, Kittinger was awarded the "Leo Stevens Parachute Medal".
On August 16, 1960, he made the final jump from the Excelsior III at 102,800 feet (31,300 m).[2] Towing a small drogue parachute for initial stabilization, he fell for four minutes and 36 seconds, reaching a maximum speed of 614 miles per hour (988 km/h)[3][4] before opening his parachute at 18,000 feet (5,500 m). Pressurization for his right glove malfunctioned during the ascent, and his right hand swelled up to twice its normal size.[5][6] He set historical numbers for highest balloon ascent, highest parachute jump, longest drogue-fall (four minutes), and fastest speed by a human being through the atmosphere.[7] These are still current USAF records, but were not submitted for aerospace world records to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).
These jumps were made in a "rocking-chair" position, descending on his back, rather than in the usual face-down position familiar to skydivers. This was because he was wearing a 60 lb (27 kg) "kit" on his behind, and his pressure suit naturally formed the sitting shape when it was inflated, a shape appropriate for sitting in an airplane cockpit. For this series of jumps, Kittinger was decorated with a second Distinguished Flying Cross, and he was awarded the Harmon Trophy by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
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World: Aviation Pioneer Recognized For Parachute Jump From Edge Of Space - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2010
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...I was very close to being in space. As I pointed out, I only had 5 millimeters of [air] pressure, which is almost a complete vacuum. Of course, in space, there is zero pressure. But there's not an awful lot of difference between 5 millimeters and zero when you compare that we have 780 millimeters [of air pressure] where we are here on Earth. I was in space as far as the body is concerned.
RFE/RL: When you were free-falling from that height, what did it feel like? Did you feel weightless?
Kittinger: You feel kind of weightless, but you've got to remember this. The way you can discern speed is by depth perception. If you're in a steady state of falling, you have no idea that you're falling unless you can see something that tells you you're falling. And, of course, at 20 miles (31 kilometers) up, there are no trees rushing by. There's no Earth close to you. So you really don't have any perception of falling if you know you're falling, and you're in zero gravity. You're accelerating at 32 feet (10 meters) per second until you reach terminal velocity, but the only way you know where you are is the altimeter that you have because of the tremendous speed that you're going at. But you have no way of discerning it because you have no way of depth perception to show you anything going rushing by.
RFE/RL: What was going through your mind at the moment you stepped off the gondola?
Kittinger: Well, first of all, I was a project officer. I was a project engineer. I was a project director. I selected myself to do the jump. I'd been training for a year and a half for it. I had confidence in myself, in my equipment, in my team. I was there as an engineer, I was there as a test pilot. I was there to get information. So I was extremely busy. I was completely engrossed in why I was there, in what we were trying to do.
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And, while the whole extreme hang gliding thing is VERY cool. This guy is a hero for something completely unrelated. 500 flight missions over Vietnam and 11 months as a PoW.
Amazing.
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