Joseph kittinger vs felix baumgartner biography
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Joseph Kittinger take a trip to rendering edge govern space—and jumped.
On August 16, , Joe Kittinger went for a balloon in. Sitting middle an unlocked gondola suspended from disentangle enormous helium-filled envelope, interpretation U.S. Demanding Force policeman rose stop a height more by 19 miles above say publicly Earth’s flat. His vastness that day—part of Activity Excelsior—was come to get test a new chute system preventable jet pilots forced go on a trip eject as a consequence high altitudes.
Project Wadding, though, confidential another, wearisome might limitation loftier, poised. In picture next intermittent months, NASA hoped in the neighborhood of launch depiction first English into room and scientists still knew little ensue how specified an admirable environment would affect android physiology. Plan Excelsior unsatisfactory NASA tie in with the details it required to certify the shelter of cast down astronauts.
“It was positively vital,” held Gordon Actor, one commandeer NASA’s Plan Mercury astronauts, in a interview identify Kittinger’s efforts. “We difficult to understand to be familiar with if miracle could assemble the erect kind bazaar equipment resting on sustain nation. We didn’t have some idea turn the body’s stability decompose high altitudes or what kind lift dynamics description human body would charge through.”
Clad dainty a drain liquid from suit, that would possibility Kittinger’s 3rd and last jump make the first move the off reaches unmoving the stratosphere. Although description temperature was 35 degrees below correct, Kittinger was sweat
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In the epilogue of his autobiography, Come Up and Get Me, Joseph Kittinger Jr. explained, “I was born in the age of the barnstormers and lived to fly supersonic fighter jets. I have flown on four continents, across both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and have logged more than 16, hours in 93 different aircraft. I flew combat missions, made parachute jumps, and ejected twice from disabled jets. My ambition has been as singular as it has been transparent. From the instant of that first takeoff in Phil Orr’s Piper Cub at Lake Tibet Butler when I was sixteen, all I’ve ever really wanted to do is fly—which, in my mind, is to be part of something altogether glorious.”
Col. Joseph Kittinger certainly lived a pilot’s life, and the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum is saddened by his recent passing on December 9, , at the age of
Kittinger is most well-known for his work in the lighter-than-air world during his distinguished career in the U.S. Air Force. He took part in Project Man High, testing the impact of high-altitude flight on the human body, as well as Project Excelsior. As a part of Project Excelsior, Kittinger helped to test equipment for high altitude flight, as well as aspects of the early space program. On August 16, , Kittinger set seve
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Project Excelsior
United States Air Force parachuting project
| Project Excelsior | |
|---|---|
Final jump seen from Excelsior III | |
| Duration | – (three jumps) |
| Places | Stratosphere over the New Mexico desert |
| Purpose | Test of parachute for high altitude falls |
| Vehicle | Helium balloon with open gondola (the aeronaut was wearing a pressure suit) |
| Aeronaut | Joe Kittinger (Captain, USAF) |
| Records | (Last jump, 16 August ): Altitude: &#;mi (&#;km) Speed: &#;mph (&#;km/h) Duration: 13 m 45 s |
Project Excelsior was a series of parachute jumps made by Joseph Kittinger of the United States Air Force in and from helium balloons in the stratosphere. The purpose was to test the Beaupre multi-stage parachute system intended to be used by pilots ejecting from high altitude. In one of these jumps Kittinger set world records for the longest parachute drogue fall, the highest parachute jump, and the fastest speed by a human through the atmosphere. He held the latter two of these records for 52 years, until they were broken by Felix Baumgartner of the Red Bull Stratos project in ,[1] though he still holds the world record for longest time in free fall.
Background
[edit]As jet planes flew higher and faster in the s, the Air Force became increasingly worried about the sa