Edge of Space?

[DustyP 0]

Who was that guy that jumped from like…. Really, really high?
I remember he got up that high in a hydrogen balloon, I’m thinking like 80,000ft not sure.
Anyone know all the facts? How high, How fast he fell? What he was trying to prove? Ect.

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[airtwardo 7]

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=search_results&search_forum=all&search_string=kittenger&search_type=AND&search_fields=sb&search_time=&search_user_username=&sb=score&mh=25

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[slotperfect 7]

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=search_results&search_forum=all&search_string=kittinger&search_type=AND&search_fields=sb&search_time=&search_user_username=&sb=score&mh=50

Arrive Safely

John

[airtwardo 7]

Show-Off!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[zoobrothertom 5]

Quote

Who was that guy that jumped from like…. Really, really high?
I remember he got up that high in a hydrogen balloon, I’m thinking like 80,000ft not sure.
Anyone know all the facts? How high, How fast he fell? What he was trying to prove? Ect.

Dusty, before dealing with the "Ect," lets review some constants in life. One of them is, "He who has the most money (that's upgraded from marbles) gets to make the rules."
The guy who went really, really high had a lot of marbles (in adult speak, that equals BALLS) and government backing (that equals money, funny how things change but everything's the same ).
So, with Uncle Sams' money he got access to the ultimate Xbox (check Dusty's profile). They let him play a lot and eventually he won!! He went really, really high and fell really, really long. I won't bore you with the details because you nailed it right up front.
OK, sarcasm (sic) aside, his name was Joe Kitt something... He was famoouse and so was his flying squirrel....

Am I being trolled?.....

____________________________________
I'm back in the USA!!

[mjosparky 4]

Joe Kittinger

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[skypuppy 1]

Go get the book

The Pre-Astronauts: Manned Ballooning on the Thresholds of Space

by Craig Ryan. It's all in there.

Kittinger also wrote a book (with Martin Caidin), 'The Long Lonely Leap', but it's rare, expensive, hard to get hold of, and Ryan's book covers Kittinger's as well as other operations before and after in order to achieve the same things.

If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead.
Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone

[lawrocket 3]

And, by the way, that jump occured 46 years ago today - on August 16, 1960.

It's amazing to think that such a record has not been broken in this long.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[ripcord4 0]

Then Captain Kittinger's jump was not aimed at setting a record - it was for research and development of a very high altitude escape parachute system. No one has been higher (most likely) because of the cost and logistics involved. Money is no object to our favorite Uncle!

[airtwardo 7]

Quote

Then Captain Kittinger's jump was not aimed at setting a record - it was for research and development of a very high altitude escape parachute system. No one has been higher (most likely) because of the cost and logistics involved. Money is no object to our favorite Uncle!

IIRC...the Russians have, about the same time and for the same reason.

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[lawrocket 3]

No, the aim wasn't at setting a record. But it did, and the record has stood. Once someone goes higher, further, faster or longer than anyone else, others attempt to beat it...

I'm surprised Steve Fossett or Richard Branson haven't tried to beat it...

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[iamsam 0]

Check out Branson's AFF jump...

http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=3474&string=branson

you won't be so surprised that he's not tried it..

but what do I know

[riggermick 7]

Quote

Then Captain Kittinger's jump was not aimed at setting a record - it was for research and development of a very high altitude escape parachute system. No one has been higher (most likely) because of the cost and logistics involved. Money is no object to our favorite Uncle!

Try googling "project man high" that's what the program was called.


Mick.

[ripcord4 0]

Project Excelsior was the program that Kittinger jumped with when he made his series of high altitude jumps. Man High was a program of high altitude balloon rides to test the effects of altitude and cosmic rays on the human body - no jumps were made during Man High. Captain Kittenger and Major David Simons were the main test subjects. The gondola that Kittenger made his record jump from is in the USAF Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. For anyone that has never visted there, it is worth a trip!