Quicksand Fans

You can watch Felix Baumgartner's attempt at the highest, longest, and fastest freefall live here today. It's also being broadcast live on the Discovery Channel.

Go, man, go!

Saw this live too... awesome!

But you sure as hell wouldn't catch me doing this.... you'd never pry my hands off the hatch....

Well, three out of four records ain't bad.

And he survived it. That's the really good news in all this.

In the interview afterwards you could tell he believed that he'd had a close brush with death and that while he was thrilled at his achievement he had also realised his own mortality.

I'm sure someone else is already wondering and perhaps even planning to go higher.
But not to take from his accomplishment, the footage alone was simply fantastic.

Villein wrote:In the interview afterwards you could tell he believed that he'd had a close brush with death and that while he was thrilled at his achievement he had also realised his own mortality.

I'm sure someone else is already wondering and perhaps even planning to go higher.
But not to take from his accomplishment, the footage alone was simply fantastic.

It was amazing to watch it live. There was a point where he was spinning fast enough that I was worried he might red out or worse, but then he stabilized his fall. It couldn't have been easy keeping his arms extended while decelerating that hard for that long.

It was also nice to see Joe Kittinger reading him the checklist an rooting for him. Some people would jealously guard their world records; Joe was obviously excited to see someone attempting to go further and top his. It was kind of cool to see his record for longest freefall stand after this.

Now I'd like to see Yves Rossy attempt this with a jet-powered body wing, just to see how far he could go. It would be fascinating to see the engineering that would go into trying to make that work.

DangerGirl wrote:... nice to see Joe Kittinger reading him the checklist an rooting for him. Some people would jealously guard their world records; Joe was obviously excited to see someone attempting to go further and top his. It was kind of cool to see his record for longest freefall stand after this.

There's a guy whose autobiography reads like some kind of adventure book. Somewhere I still have the National Geographic about his series of ultra-high altitude jumps and that was only part of his wild life. One record nobody will ever take from him is being the first to fly solo across the Atlantic in a balloon. He broke his leg on landing but still managed to open the champagne while waiting to be found. I think he found a kindred spirit in Felix.

I watched the jump live on the Discovery channel and shared the initial concern while he was spinning early on. Most folks seem to agree that this has pushed balloon jumping about as far as you can go. The next step may be some sort of sub-orbital bailout. I can see Sir Richard Branson ordering a parachute soon with a Virgin Galactic logo on it.

A sub orbital bailout would be a huge jump in terms of complexity as well as distance. The higher altitude would be nothing compared to the horizontal velocities involved. Actual orbital velocity is on the order of 17,000 miles per hour, and if that is to be reduced by friction (which is what slowed the fall yesterday) it would require a heat shield. Maybe someone can figure out how to surf (airsurf?) on a board made out of ceramic heatshield tiles.

Duncan Edwards wrote:

DangerGirl wrote:... nice to see Joe Kittinger reading him the checklist an rooting for him. Some people would jealously guard their world records; Joe was obviously excited to see someone attempting to go further and top his. It was kind of cool to see his record for longest freefall stand after this.

There's a guy whose autobiography reads like some kind of adventure book. Somewhere I still have the National Geographic about his series of ultra-high altitude jumps and that was only part of his wild life. One record nobody will ever take from him is being the first to fly solo across the Atlantic in a balloon. He broke his leg on landing but still managed to open the champagne while waiting to be found. I think he found a kindred spirit in Felix.

I watched the jump live on the Discovery channel and shared the initial concern while he was spinning early on. Most folks seem to agree that this has pushed balloon jumping about as far as you can go. The next step may be some sort of sub-orbital bailout. I can see Sir Richard Branson ordering a parachute soon with a Virgin Galactic logo on it.

Caught it live just before he jumped. Watching him drop away from the balloon was amazing.