Felix Baumgartner, new name in history

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Lt.Col.Vortex

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Felix Baumgartner is now the only human to break the sound barrier in a free fall. Jumping from an altitude 128,100 feet above the earth (achieved by balloon), Felix reached a speed of 833.9 mph, or Mach 1.24.

[video=youtube;GFmy9netDeE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFmy9netDeE&feature=player_embedded#![/video]

Longer video showing what goes on and what he does. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/video/2012/oct/14/felix-baumgartner-skydive-space-video

Sorry if this has already been posted somewhere (i didn't see it yet).
 
I didn't hear about this until it actually happened. Which is surprising since I saw commercials left and right for the guy who walked across Niagra Falls.
 
I couldn't do it. I'd have had a heart attack as soon as I stepped out on the capsule step.
 
I'm sure he'll get something out of it, but he's not exactly going to become a houshold name. I'm 42 years old, and I've watched a lot of television in my life, yet I've never even heard of the guy who originally held the record. I didn't even know that such a record existed. Perhaps there will be some valuable scientific knowledge gathered as a result of the stunt, otherwise, well, people will do a lot of things, and spend a lot of money, to get attention and fame.
 
I'd pay money to do that... hopefully it'll become commercialized in that future. I'm sure there's a market.
 
I'm 58 and wanted to break Joe Kittingers recore since I was about 14. Missed it by about 85,000 feet. When I was a tot we all knew the land , sea and airspeed record holders, all the astronautsm and all the Indy 500 winners. Just kid info at the time. I started skydiving at 16 and retired 2 years later when I got married with 134 jumps. Bad trade. She quit smoking and I gave up fun.
Jeb Corliss is another wing suit guy.
Watch the last 20 seconds of this video/ No he is not dead http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFk6hxHIR0Q
 
The winged-suit stuff is cool; that takes real talent and work.

This Stratos jump? I see it as two things foremost: First, it's a test of gravity. And gravity is one of the most reliable things in the universe and really doesn't need to be tested. And, second, it's a "gear thing." Without millions of dollars worth of state-of-the-art, custom-engineered and -made gear, nobody could survive even a few seconds at those altitudes. But, with millions of dollars worth of state-of-the-art, custom-engineered and -made gear, any grandmother can survive at those altitudes. The credit for the success of this stunt is, in my opinion, goes about 99% to the gear and maybe 1% -- and I think I'm being generous -- to the man. As I see it, this guy just went for a ride in a multimillion-dollar machine.

I see this as being similar to me going on a roller coaster ride. Yes, it takes a certain amount of "courage" and "bravado" and amount of "thrill-seeking" to do that; not everyone can or wants to. But once a person screws up what it takes to have a seat in the coaster's car, once the operator presses the button and the ride begins, it's the machine that does the work; the person is just, as they say, "along for the ride."

I'm much much more impressed by hang gliders, by the winged-suit people, by some parasailers, some skateboarders, some windsurfers, etc. These things require a lot more of what is both figuratively and literally referred to as "skin in the game."
 
I think the guy is really brave, but his "skill" was in not putting a death grip on the side of the balloon he jumped out of.
 
Brave, no doubt. While success was, I assert almost entirely a function of the millions of dollars worth of gear, that gear had not been entirely tested. The failure of a small gasket could have proven fatal. So, certainly he is brave.
 
I think you underestimate the skill needed to keep his "attitude". If you watch the lengthier video, there is a period where he is in a spin/tumble, they are worried will knock him out.

I have seen training video's of Navy Seals, who cannot, even after all their training, get the hang of sky diving, especially when gear is added to the mix. They will washout because they cannot figure out how to stabilize in air during free fall, this problem is compounded when they strap on heavy gear, high altitude gear, etc. When your chute pops as you step out of the plane, it is one thing. When doing a Halo jump you have to be able to control your self in flight, or you can die. If you are not in the proper position when
 
I'm with Professor Gollnick on this one. Any of us in this thread could have fallen to earth, because gravity treats us all equally. Its true that it took either bravery, or stupidity, or a giant ego or something in order this guy to risk his life - and I'm not sure that squandering one's life for a fleeting moment of fame is smart - but the actually jump and falling part was no real accomplishment. Same way I feel about many pro athletes. Kobe Bryant can dunk? Its because God made him tall and coordinated, not because of the force of Kobe's superior intellect or will. Same with Baumgartner. He fell because God made gravity. Now, I thought the whole event was extremely cool, and we watched it live on the Discovery channel. It was a memorable event for me, and harkened back to my childhood when Evil Knievel was the coolest guy ever. And Mr. Bigfattyt is right that Baumgartner is not without skill. It must have been awesome standing there with 24 miles of nothing under your feet. But a year from now, I bet that few of us will remember Baumgartner's name. He'll just be know as "that guy" who jumped out of a balloon.
 
powernoodle said:
I'm with Professor Gollnick on this one. Any of us in this thread could have fallen to earth, because gravity treats us all equally. Its true that it took either bravery, or stupidity, or a giant ego or something in order this guy to risk his life - and I'm not sure that squandering one's life for a fleeting moment of fame is smart - but the actually jump and falling part was no real accomplishment. Same way I feel about many pro athletes. Kobe Bryant can dunk? Its because God made him tall and coordinated, not because of the force of Kobe's superior intellect or will. Same with Baumgartner. He fell because God made gravity. Now, I thought the whole event was extremely cool, and we watched it live on the Discovery channel. It was a memorable event for me, and harkened back to my childhood when Evil Knievel was the coolest guy ever. And Mr. Bigfattyt is right that Baumgartner is not without skill. It must have been awesome standing there with 24 miles of nothing under your feet. But a year from now, I bet that few of us will remember Baumgartner's name. He'll just be know as "that guy" who jumped out of a balloon.
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While I agree with the general overview of your post, I must say Herr Noodle, I disagree with this statement. If any tall coordinated guy could 'dunk' than Kobe's SKILLS wouldn't be worth the money - and his WILL to win / work ethic isn't admired worldwide for nothing - - he was the worlds best at a very popular sport..

But as far as the space jump, I am still a little suspect (though I'm sure he did jump from somewhere, and I'm glad that he landed safely) but, why no GoPro type camera?
 
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Any half competent pilot could have flown the plane that broke the sound barrier for the first time. Anyone could applied themselves and taken the first steps on the moon...ect. But that fact is that someone did and that someone is always recognized. It may have taken very little brains for such an event, but the fact remains that (insert a specific historical name) did it.

I do agree that a lot of credit goes towards the people behind him and the equipment designed and developed that accompanied him.
 
Amazing feat. A good test of man and gear. Highest I've jumped from is 23,000ft and I thought THAT was high. Fastest free fall was 232mph, fast for me! You can stick your finger out and spin almost haha! I can't imagine going as fast as he was going and getting to see the world beneath his feet the way he did. Well done. Also, much respect to Joe Kittinger for doing it over 50 years ago with way less advanced equipment.

-Hugh
 
ISKski said:
While I agree with the general overview of your post, I must say Herr Noodle, I disagree with this statement. If any tall coordinated guy could 'dunk' than Kobe's SKILLS wouldn't be worth the money - and his WILL to win / work ethic isn't admired worldwide for nothing - - he was the worlds best at a very popular sport..

But as far as the space jump, I am still a little suspect (though I'm sure he did jump from somewhere, and I'm glad that he landed safely) but, why no GoPro type camera?
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Did you not watch the multiple video's from different angles? He had a camera on his chest that filmed the descent, including the curvature of the earth, from about 100 angles, as he fell, spun, and tumbled toward the planet at 833mph. There was also a super zoom camera filming from the ground.
 
Any half competent pilot could have flown the plane that broke the sound barrier for the first time. Anyone could applied themselves and taken the first steps on the moon...ect.
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When Chuck Yeager put peddle-to-metal, no man had ever broken the sound barrier in any way. The "experts" disagreed whether the human body could do that at all. Kelly Johnson, the engineer (now legend) who designed the plane, didn't know exactly what would happen as the plane went through the sound barrier because nobody had actually gone through it. And Yaeger did it horizontally powered by a jet engine, not vertically powered by gravity (even the ascent of a ballon is actually powered by gravity).

Mr. Baumgartner tested gravity. Maj. Gen. Yaeger defied it.

The trip to the moon was designed originally as a thrill ride. But then the engineers realized that they couldn't confect a vehicle that could do it by itself. The "computer" on the Apollo capsules was designed by one of my professors. I suspect that my microwave oven has more computational capacity than the Apollo flight computer did. The engineers quickly changed their design to depend on the human brain as the primary computer.






I've done both. I have flown planes and jumped out of them. Flying is orders-of-magnitude more difficult (and frightening).
 
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One thing that remained untested what the effects of breaking the sound barrier directly to the human body. Yes he was in a space suit but up until this point everyone else has been in some sort of aerodynamic ( or not so aerodynamic ) object that bushed through the air (or lack thereof ) which shielded the operator(s) from the affects. We weren't exactly sure what would happen to Felix when he broke the barrier but like everyone else we could only speculate. Yes he did mainly prove gravity, but he also proved that a human body can pass through the transonic barrier "unshielded'. Granted he was in very thin air which reduced greatly the amount of friction and drag on the body, but regardless he went mach 1.24 within an atmosphere. The astronauts travel considerably faster than the speed of sound when preforming a space walk on the space station. And the ISS is still considered within the earths atmosphere ( I think..too lazy to go figure out). The main ting Felix was doing was showing the affects of transonic flight ( flight?? he was falling) without any for of protection (vehicle).
 
Another thing that remained untested was what the size of the crater would be if he had forgotten his parachute. I'm glad the fella brought his, alright. Maybe the next candidate / volunteer can be that Bieber fella.. he can make his own amphitheater.

Anyway, cheers to Felix. Pretty astounding!
 
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