The USAF had a program in the 1959-1960 in which successful free jumps
were made from balloons at up to ~32 km (100,000 ft.). The relevance was
astronauts and SR-71 bailouts. This would top that achievement
On Monday, September 9, 2002, at 11:20 AM, Owen Byrne wrote:
>> Why so fast?  Normal terminal velocity is much slower.
> "The last person to try to break the highest free fall record died in
> the attempt. In 1965, New Jersey truck driver Nick Piantanida suffered
> catastrophic equipment failure when his facemask blew out at 57,000
> feet. Lack of oxygen caused such severe brain damage that he went into
> you can discover that he will break the sound barrier at 35,000 m,
> presumably reaching top speed somewhere above 30,000.
>>> From: fork-admin@xent.com [mailto:fork-admin@xent.com] On Behalf Of
>>> Sent: Sunday, September 08, 2002 8:36 AM
>>> So uh, would this qualify for the Darwin awards if he doesn't make it?
>>> RH> Today a French officer called Michel Fournier is supposed to get
>>> RH> 350-metre tall helium balloon, ride it up to the edge of space (40
>>> RH> altitude) and jump out.  His fall should last 6.5 minutes and
>>> RH> speeds of Mach 1.5.  He hopes to open his parachute manually at
>>> RH> end, although with an automatic backup if he is 7 seconds from the
>>> RH> ground and still hasn't opened it.
>>> RH>   "Vederò, si averò si grossi li coglioni, come ha il re di
>>> RH>   ("Let's see if I've got as much balls as the King of France!")
>>> RH>   - Pope Julius II, 2 January 1511

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