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    Skydiver to Break Sound Barrier During 120,000-foot Jump

    By Greg Otto | U.S.News & World Report LP – Tue, Feb 7, 2012

    An Austrian skydiver will attempt to break the sound barrier later this year when he leaps from a weather balloon located 23 miles off the ground.

    Felix Baumgartner, 42, will jump from 120,000 feet above the Earth's surface, trying to break a record that has been held for nearly 50 years.

    After jumping from the balloon, Baumgartner will reach speeds of over 690 mph, breaking the sound barrier just 35 seconds after beginning his descent. He will be wrapped in a protective suit that will withstand temperatures of up to -70 degrees Celsius and stores oxygen for up to 20 minutes.

    According to the Daily Mail, Baumgartner plans to break four records: Highest-altitude freefall, highest manned balloon flight, longest distance traveled in freefall and fastest freefall.

    The current record was set in 1960 by U.S. Air Force Colonel Joseph Kittinger, who jumped from a balloon 102,800 feet above ground in 1960.

    Baumgartner has made some wild jumps in the past, including a freeall across the English Channel in 2003 and a world-record BASE jump from the hand of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.

     

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    7 comments

    • Stephen
      Stephen  •  Cincinnati, Ohio  •  3 mths ago
      Terminal velocity for a free fall human is like 125mph so how is he going to get going so fast, just curious.
      • Martin
        Martin 3 mths ago
        AIRBORNE!!!!!! Good Job Skeeter
      • oilfieldworker
        oilfieldworker 3 mths ago
        Verry little air at 120,000 feet........
      • Stephen
        Stephen 3 mths ago
        I was under the impression that terminal velocity is fastest something can fall regardless of height of the fall. We generally assume you get higher and fall farther you go faster and faster but in physics thats not true, everything has a max speed then it just stays consistent based on weight/gravity. I was just curious how he would get going 3x that. There obviously has to be a way because the other guy came close to that, I was just curious if anyone actually knew how he gets so much faster than terminal velocity.
    • yahoo user
      yahoo user  •  Monrovia, California  •  3 mths ago
      This will be interesting. I saw a documentry on Joseph Kittinger and his jump. About 10 min into the accent Kittingers glove malfunctioned casuing his hand to sell up to the size of a full baloon. Also, at high altitudes and high speed the human body falls into what they call a death spiral. The army used a 2nd parachute to keep Kittinger from spinning out of control to his death.
    • Gee,You Are Special
      Gee,You Are Special  •  Sydney, Australia  •  3 mths ago
      Well as the saying goes:
      If at first you don't succeed, skydiving isn't for you.
    • The Guffaw Conspiracy
      The Guffaw Conspiracy  •  3 mths ago
      Whatever terminal velocity is achieved, it can be exceeded by visiting Taco Bell before the jump.
    • dave near st. louis
      dave near st. louis  •  Germantown, Maryland  •  3 mths ago
      Acceleration of gravity is 32 feet per second, so a falling object IN A VACUUM is falling 32 feet per second after 1 sec, 64 feet per second after 2 secs, etc. "Terminal velocity" is determined by the acceleration of gravity MINUS the braking effect of the air. Since our brave friend will be in the stratosphere where it is almost a vacuum, there will be very little braking caused by air resistance. (P.S. 88 feet per second = 60 MPH)
    • oneeye
      oneeye  •  3 mths ago
      now that is a he** of a HALO jump hope he has enough O2 bottle and from that altitude just how long will he have to fall till he gets back to the point he can free breath.
    • oilfieldworker
      oilfieldworker  •  3 mths ago
      Why? Aren't there some record this guy can try and break on the ground? Oh wait, he might break the record and the ground in one fell swoop.
     Post a comment
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