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 comfortably.http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/postwwii/pe.htmChuckOn Monday, September 9, 2002, at 11:20 AM, Owen Byrne wrote:> John Hall wrote: > >> Why so fast? Normal terminal velocity is much slower. >> > Not at 40,000 m. I found this article > (http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,53928,00.html) : > > "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 > a coma and died four months later." > > And in amongst the flash at > http://www.legrandsaut.org/site_en/ > > you can discover that he will break the sound barrier at 35,000 m, > presumably reaching top speed somewhere above 30,000. > > Owen > >> >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: fork-admin@xent.com [mailto:fork-admin@xent.com] On Behalf Of >>> bitbitch@magnesium.net >>> Sent: Sunday, September 08, 2002 8:36 AM >>> To: (Robert Harley) >>> Cc: fork@spamassassin.taint.org >>> Subject: Re: The Big Jump >>> >>> >>> >>> So uh, would this qualify for the Darwin awards if he doesn't make it? >>> >>> Freaking french people... >>> :-) >>> -BB >>> RH> Today a French officer called Michel Fournier is supposed to get >>> >> in a >> >>> RH> 350-metre tall helium balloon, ride it up to the edge of space (40 >>> >> km >> >>> RH> altitude) and jump out. His fall should last 6.5 minutes and >>> >> reach >> >>> RH> speeds of Mach 1.5. He hopes to open his parachute manually at >>> >> the >> >>> RH> end, although with an automatic backup if he is 7 seconds from the >>> RH> ground and still hasn't opened it. >>> >>> RH> R >>> >>> RH> ObQuote: >>> RH> "VederÃ², si averÃ² si grossi li coglioni, come ha il re di >>> >> Franza." >> >>> RH> ("Let's see if I've got as much balls as the King of France!") >>> RH> - Pope Julius II, 2 January 1511 >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Best regards, >>> bitbitch mailto:bitbitch@magnesium.net >>> >> >> >> > > >