Crazy “Sport” People
Most of the stuff i put on here has something, at least a little bit, to do with sports. Whether you consider it a sport is up to you. Not to sure if everyone will consider this a sport, i assume all he had to do to complete this ‘mission’ was just jump once…. and then let things happen. But one this is for sure, he had to have some real big gonads!
Jumping Joe.... cRaZy!
His name is Captain Joe Kittinger, and he is a former Command Pilot and career military officer in the United States Air Force. Serving as a fighter pilot during theVietnam War, he was shot down and spent 11 months in a North Vietnamese prison!!!…. but thats not the crazy part that caught me! He is most famous for his participation in Project Excelsior.
What is Project Excelsior you ask? well….
For Project Excelsior (meaning “ever upward”), he made a series of three extreme altitude parachute jumps from an open gondola carried aloft by large helium balloons.
Kittinger’s first high-altitude jump, from about 76,400 feet (23,300 meters) on November 16, 1959, was a near-disaster when an equipment malfunction caused him to lose consciousness, but the automatic parachute opener in his equipment saved his life (he went into a flat spin at a rotational velocity of about 120 rpm; the g-forces at his extremities has been calculated to be over 22 times the force of gravity, setting another record).
You think he would call it quits after that little accident but nope… not Joe.. he had guts (and large gonads)
On August 16, 1960, he made the final jump from the Excelsior III at 102,800 feet (31,300 m). Towing a small drogue chute for initial stabilization, he fell for four minutes and 36 seconds, reaching a maximum speed of 614 mph (988 km/h or 274 m/s) before opening his parachute at 18,000 feet (5,500 m). For those that dont know, the speed of sound is 340.29 m /s.
On this jump pressurization for his right glove malfunctioned during the ascent, and his right hand swelled up to twice its normal size!!! I wish i could find a picture of that! He set historical numbers for highest balloon ascent, highest parachute jump, longest drogue-fall (four minutes), and fastest speed by a human being through the atmosphere. These are still current USAF records!
Watch this… amazing!
That is really, really cool.
How does it comparet to the Bluenose?
its basically the same thing….