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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."

5 of 323 comments (clear)

  1. Hmm.. by Jonsey · · Score: 5, Interesting

    He must have accelerated slowly.

    14 minutes is ~0.23 hours. 360km/h * .23h == 82.8km

    What interests me, is how he managed to accelerate up to the 360 kph mark, and slow back down, without the sharp sudden stop that I associate with skydiving. (C'mon you know you saw him bouncing along a field until he smacked into an old hardwood)

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    1. Re:Hmm.. by aziraphale · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I think you've forgotten about the fact that skydivers usually wear parachutes.

      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.

      Adding horizontal displacement to the mix shouldn't change the nature of the problem too much....

  2. Re:Moneypenny by mjh · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Interestingly enough, something similar to this was in the latest Lara Croft flik. I haven't seen it, but this part was interesting. During one part of the movie Angelina Jolie and someone else were trying to escape and they went to the top of some building in Hong Kong. They had a special jumpsuit on with webbing between the arms & body and between the legs. Being chased, they simply lept off the edge and flew themselves to a boat waiting in Hong Kong's harbor - about 3 miles away.

    What's interesting about it is that the scene is *NOT* a special effect. It was really done by two people. Jolie is a skydiver herself, and wanted to do the actual stunt but the producers wouldn't let her for fear of the insurance costs.

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  3. Re:Next Logical Step: by Wyatt+Earp · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/coldwar/pe. htm

    "On the third and last jump in Excelsior III on August 16, 1960, Captain Kittinger jumped from a height of 102,800 feet, almost 20 miles above the earth. With only the small stabilizing chute deployed, Kittinger fell for 4 minutes, 36 seconds. He experienced temperatures as low as minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit and a maximum speed of 714 miles per hour, exceeding the speed of sound. The 28-foot main parachute did not open until Kittinger reached the much thicker atmosphere at 17,500 feet. Kittinger safely landed in the New Mexico desert after a 13 minute 45 second descent. Project Excelsior successfully proved the new parachute system would solve the problem of high altitude escape by crewmen."

    http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/eagles/kitt-3.jpg

  4. Possible real military application?? by MtViewGuy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I really think what that Austrian skydiver demonstrated may have some real military applications.

    Imagine US Special Forces soldiers wearing these suits (which have been coated with radar-absorbing materials to reduce radar cross-section) and being launched from 32,000 feet on a C-17 cargo plane at night. They could glide 30 miles or more, which would allow these forces to be inserted far into enemy territory.

    (Come to think of it, the US Special Forces may already HAVE this capability.)