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Skydiving Across the English Channel

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the 101st-airborne-becoming-jealous dept.

loonix_gangsta writes "Felix Baumgartner, an Austrian, has become the first person to skydive 35 km (22 miles) across the English Channel. Wearing a jumpsuit with a large carbon fin strapped to his back he reached speeds of up to 360 km/h. The whole flight took approximately 14 minutes. The newsitem is being covered by the BBC, SkyNews and CNN."

3 of 323 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Hmm.. by Raindeer · · Score: 4, Informative

    Since your replies seem to suggest your sincere, I thought I'd give a reply.

    Jumping from the height this guy was on, means you have less drag, but the drag increases when you go lower, until he reaches the lower parts of the atmosphere where unpowered flight seems to be limited to about 220kph. Now would he have jumped out at 30km height, he would have broken the sound barrier and then, slowed down to 220kph.

    This ofcourse holds untill the density goes (quite abruptly) up to that of solid rock, at which point velocity goes down to zero.

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  2. Re:Hmm.. by bakreule · · Score: 4, Informative
    Normal behavior for a skydiver is to fall out of a plane, accellerate up to terminal velocity, maintain that speed for a while, then open your parachute, which slows you down to a lower terminal velocity, then hit the ground and (hopefully) stop.

    If this is a troll, I'll bite, but since there are two comments in the same vein, I don't think it is. Unless the trolls are teaming up.. dear god..

    Speaking from skydiving experience, if you open your parachute at 360kph, the parachute will be ripped right off your back and probably break a few bones in the process.

    Even during a "normal" skydive the diver can accelerate to around 160mph (sorry for the sudden unit switch) by falling vertically. However, before deploying the parachute, the skydiver must slow themselves down by going into the "neutral" position: arched back, hands and legs out. This will slow the diver down to around 120mph, which is safe to deploy the canopy.

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  3. Someone made a mistake by luugi · · Score: 4, Informative
    CNN says

    "God of the Skies" covered a distance of 35 kilometers (20 miles) during his flight, reaching speeds of up to 200 kilometers an hour.


    BBC says:

    Mr Baumgartner said the plane was at 30,000 ft (9,000 m) when he jumped - and he initially reached speeds of 360 km (220 miles) per hour. For most of the freefall, he was travelling at about 220 km (135 miles) per hour, he said.
    .

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