This year, Felix Baumgartner plans to break the world record for the highest ever skydive from a staggering 120,000ft or 23 miles! However, back in August 1960 Joe Kittinger became a real life superhero – during Project Excelsior he set the world record for the highest parachute jump which still stands over 50 years later!
Colonel Joe Kittinger is most famous for his skydive in 1960 from staggering 103,000ft, holding the world record for highest, fastest and longest skydive which still stands to this day! Aside from that, Joe was also the first person to cross the Atlantic solo in a balloon and also spent 11 months in a Vietnamese prison of war camp when he was shot down while serving as a fighter pilot in the US Air Force.
Project Excelsior came about as the need to design and test high-altitude ejection systems for pilots increased as planes started flying higher and faster, and due to his vast knowledge and expertise, Joe was named test director and made the first test jump in 1959. After some close calls and a few test jumps later at ever-increasing heights, during the final jump he left his unpressurised capsule and fell back to earth from 103,000ft, reaching 9/10ths the speed of sound at 614 miles per hour, setting 3 world records while falling for over four and a half minutes.
“An hour and thirty-one minutes after launch, my pressure altimeter halts at 103,300 feet. At ground control the radar altimeters also have stopped-on readings of 102,800 feet, the figure that we later agree upon as the more reliable. It is 7 o’clock in the morning, and I have reached float altitude … Though my stabilization chute opens at 96,000 feet, I accelerate for 6,000 feet more before hitting a peak of 614 miles an hour, nine-tenths the speed of sound at my altitude” – The Long, Lonely Leap. National Geographic
In the build up to the final jump there were several problems that the team needed to overcome to ensure that the full height could be reached. During the first high altitude jump from 76,000ft, Joe went into a flat spin while falling due to a malfunction in his equipment, causing him to loose consciousness as he span at 120rpm! The only thing that saved him from certain death was his automatic shoot opener which engaged at 8,000ft! On the final jump, a malfunction in his right glove resulted in Joe getting server pain due to the lack or pressure, but he choose to carry on regardless and climbed for a further 60,000ft before free-falling back to earth.
Fast forward 52 years and Red Bull are in the final stages of preparation for their Stratos Jump and are hoping to finally beat Joe’s long standing record. Felix Baumgartner is aiming to climb to a height of 120,000ft before leaving the capsule and falling back to earth. With his rather unique expert knowledge in the field of skydives from this height, Joe has been asked to help the Red Bull team set the new record and will be Felix’s first point of contact at Mission Control talking him thought the ascent and the final preparations before the jump.
The Red Bull Stratos Jump is due to take place on the later this summer, but make sure you check back regularly to get updates on the team’s progress and how the mission to skydive from the edge of space folds out.
