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He took the record for fastest freefall (supersonic), highest skydive and highest manned balloon flight. Pretty sure he'll be happy with that, and to let Kittin
by benlm 14y ago
He took the record for fastest freefall (supersonic), highest skydive and highest manned balloon flight. Pretty sure he'll be happy with that, and to let Kittinger keep longest freefall.
- tzs 14y agoI'm not sure about the fastest free fall part--how is free fall defined for purposes of this record? In particular, how does the record not belong to Bill Weaver, the test pilot whose SR-71 disintegrated at Mach 3.18? Here's his account of the incident: http://www.barthworks.com/aviation/sr71breakup.htm http://www.barthworks.com/aviation/sr71breakup.htm
- calibwam 14y agoHe didn't survive, which is a requisite to get a record.
- carbocation 14y agoThen how did he write a firsthand account?
- georgemcbay 14y agoghostblogging. It is the hottest new trend in the Valley.
- carbocation 14y agoI must say, I do subscribe to Tupac's ghost-podcast.
- lloyddobbler 14y agoNow that's a freakin' cool article! Freefall is generally defined in terms of vertical speed. If you exit a DeHavilland Twin Otter that's doing 90 knots forward speed, yes, you get "forward throw" from the plane...but you still have to accelerate vertically before reaching terminal velocity. As a skydiver flying on your belly in an arched position, you usually fall at ~5 seconds per 1000 feet...excepting the first 1000 feet, which takes ~10 seconds to fall as you move from 0 vertical speed to 120mph. (It's that age-old physics problem of whether the forward speed of a projectile has an effect on its downward velocity.)
- fudged71 14y agoDon't world record attempts need to be supervised and checked for authenticity? /couldbewrong