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Anyone watch the Space Jump?


Dorado

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Felix Baumgartner just set the world record for highest freefall. In the Red Bull Stratos balloon he jumped from 128,000 ft beating the previous record of 113,000 ft. The freefall lasted 4min 22sec, missing the previous record of 4min 36sec. Also, while not confirmed, he reached speeds over 700mph possibly breaking the sound barrier.

I hope some of y'all got to see this, It was really cool.

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It was on the Discovery Channel and several News sites.

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I guarantee every ex paratrooper here watched it if they had a chance.

I was fortunate to know Joe Kittinger in Germany in '68, when he was a Major and assigned to our unit as the Air Force liason officer. Helluva guy! :)

(I was a little worried Felix might land across the border)

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Mr.Baumgartner deserves a drink after all that, I'd buy him a bottle of whatever he wants. I still believe that he pulled his chute early, so that Kittinger could keep his record.

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I recon if I had been falling at 700 mph for over 4 minutes, I might be tempted to pull the chute a little early too. That ground is coming up pretty fast. When I can make out cars and trees, it's time to slow this thing down.

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Couple of questions for you Fallschirmjäger types....

 

If he reached a velocity of 700 mph, would he have actually slowed some in the thicker lower-level atmoshphere? And if he had, what would his velocity have been at the time his 'chute opened? :mellow:

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I watched it.

 

I couldn't look away.

 

I kept asking myself, why did he jump? The capsule was coming back to earth anyway. He cudda hitched a ride.

 

Not only did he set a new record, he also proved that the Law of Gravity has not been repealed as yet.

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Couple of questions for you Fallschirmjäger types....

 

If he reached a velocity of 700 mph, would he have actually slowed some in the thicker lower-level atmoshphere? And if he had, what would his velocity have been at the time his 'chute opened? :mellow:

His velocity slowed when he reached some thicker air. He was in a spin for awhile because at that altitude you have no way to control you position aerodynamically. This can be bad if the spin causes you to pass out and you continue to spin when your canopy deploys. Terminal velocity is about 120 mph. If I recall from his book, Col. Kittinger also went into a flat spin on his jump and blacked out (or redded out actually) but came to at lower altitude.

Not an activity for wimps.

Kittinger was later shot down over N Vietnam and captured. One tough dude.

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Yawn............

Really??

It impressed me and I yawn easily.;)

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Well.................If he broke the sound barrier or used some kind of "bat Wings" and flew barrel rolls and Cuban eights...........This was more of an equipment test than a feat of human endurance.........But then again, maybe I'm just having a bad day.... (Patriots lost!)

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Did not git a chance to see da jump.

 

 

 

As a ex paratrooper I gotta ask him one........just one little bit question...............

 

 

 

 

WHY ! ? !

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Did not git a chance to see da jump.

 

 

 

As a ex paratrooper I gotta ask him one........just one little bit question...............

 

 

 

 

WHY ! ? !

I expect he'll git more than $55 a month. ;)

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Fascinating to watch. Don't know what was on other channels. I watched it on www.redbullstratos.com/live and the telemetry showed a maximum speed of 729mph. Don't know if that was over Mach I at that altitude, but that's a minor point. Baumgartner set some records that I believe will stand for a long time.

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On a related note, Chuck Yeager was the first man to go supersonic 65 years ago today. This morning General Yeager strapped into a F 15 strike Eagle and went supersonic once again at 10:24am at 30,ooo feet over the Mojave desert. Still a badass at the age of 89

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"Well.................If he broke the sound barrier or used some kind of "bat Wings" and flew barrel rolls and Cuban eights...........This was more of an equipment test than a feat of human endurance.........But then again, maybe I'm just having a bad day.... (Patriots lost!)"

 

By your reckoning, the men and women of the space programs, Orville and Wilbur Wright, Chuck Yeager, Dick Rutan, Jacque Piccard and Don Walsh, and Jacque Cousteau were simply testers of equipment. I won't try to dissuade you from your opinion...

 

But these men and women are heroes in my book!

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Chuck Yeager said he'd do the mission for his regular Air Force captain's pay, which was about that amount at the time. Supposed there were some Hollywood stuntmen who wanted exorbitant fees to do the mission.

 

Clip from "The Right Stuff" This is one of my favorite movie clips of all times. Fast forward to the 7:50 point for the discussion about his salary.

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Is that still the going rate?

I bleeve it's $150 amonth now for rope dopes. $225 if you're wearin them mff wings.

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Chuck Yeager said he'd do the mission for his regular Air Force captain's pay, which was about that amount at the time. Supposed there were some Hollywood stuntmen who wanted exorbitant fees to do the mission.

As I recall from Yeager's book, Chalmers "Slick" Goodlin, Bell's X-1 pilot, wanted a bonus of $150,000 to break the barrier.

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