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Indian Tycoon Sets Balloon Flight Record
GillBates0 writes "The BBC is reporting that Vijaypat Singhania, a textile tycoon, has set a new world record for the highest hot air balloon flight. The 67-year-old took off from Mumbai, India in a 48m(160ft) balloon and flew to a height of 21,290m (69,852ft) breaking the earlier record of 19,811m(64,997ft)."
That Indian math guy covered previously on Slashdot?
The pilot relied upon his Pakistani friends to shoot at the balloons to aid in his descent.
Indian Balloon Tycoon?
These sequels to Railroad Tycoon are getting stranger and stranger.
how is this Science?
1's and 0's should be free.
so what would _YOU_ do if you had a gajillion dollars?
Buy a Porsche..?
I'd bet he already has a few of those..
perl -e 'printf("%x!\n",49153)'
It has to do with the hot air for sure.....
My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
richard branson is going to be pissed off
The project was called Mission Impossible 70K (MI70K) and there are some live videos detailing his flight (Flash required) on this site - http://www.mi70k.com/video.htm. The site also carries information about Mr. Singhania and his some other records.
"This goes to show to the world that we are not bullock cart drivers, but we can compete against the best of the world." Aren't Singhania's one of the richest families in India? Money can do anything.
Make your computer faster: rm -rf
Because Vijaypat Singhania doesn't care about black people.
Watch Singhania's attempt the world record breaking feat-Live! For latest updates here including record update.
The important thing is not to stop questioning --Albert Einstein.
48 meters of diameter? Damn, someone's going to be high from all that helium.
I spent several nights googling, and couldn't come up with anything definitive. How long can a balloon stay aloft? I don't care about whether it uses hot air, hydrogen, whatever. I'd like to make a balloon that would hold about 5-10 pounds (well, more than that, including the tether), put it on three long tethers, and let it fly as long as possible. The duration it can stay up is important, because I can't go check on it often (I live too far away). I want to loft an anemometer and record wind speeds to assess the viability of erecting wind generators. The good generators are really big, and really tall. And really expensive - a million dollars give or take per turbine. Obtaining financing will require the most reliable energy estimates I can muster. Wind speed can vary significantly with elevation, so I want to make measurements quite high, and a balloon seems like it might be a cheap way to do it. I want to collect data for an entire year, because seasonal fluctuations will significantly impact the viability of such a project. I could relaunch a few times, but if it's a daily event, that becomes problematic.
If you have any expertise in balloons, post an email address, and I will contact you.
Why don't you spend all your disposable income on people who need it? That includes getting rid of your computer and internet access, because those things cost money that could be used for other people. In fact, sell off all of your possessions and live in a small, unfurnished apartment. After all, that money can be used to help other people.
Or you could be a normal person and spend your money as you see fit. If you think people should be forced to spend their money for causes you like, become a politician and raise taxes.
Is there some value that I'm missing in this? Why does any care that some rich guy made a balloon to take him up 60K ft? Is there some practical application that he is trying to improve this technology for? Or, is he just trying to pump his own ego?
Why does this get reported everywhere / anywhere?
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=69852+feet+in +miles&btnG=Google+Search
"God bless those pagans."
Autonomous Retard -- Is your camp safe? UnsafeCamp.com
Two chicks at once, man.
A very good source for some perspective is this Wikipedia page on atmospheric heights. Note that the troposphere (illustrated nicely with Mt. Everest just jutting into it, an airplane flying in this layer) only extends up to 17 km (at the equator, lowers as you near the poles - the figure at the right in the Wikipedia page is in miles though, so be careful) -- this guy flew well above that (21 km).
:
So this guy is in the stratosphere, where we see only weather balloons illustrated. The layer above (mesosphere, from about 50 km on) is practically space, it's apparently where meteors burn up. So I guess this guy reached the high stratosphere - for comparison check out that Mount Everest is at 8.84 km elevation!
It's no wonder, then, that from the article (which I actually read, just for you)
He travelled in a pressurised cabin attached to a balloon as high as a 22-storey building.
This "pressurized cabin" is just mentioned once more, in this "quick facts" table:
whoops, sorry, there's once more mention of this enclosure, here are a couple of more paragraphs quoted for you, the appropriate text in bold):
And what the hell, there's so little I didn't reproduce, you might as well have a mirror. (Although I find only the following other fact interesting: "During the ascent, air temperatures plummeted to around -93C (-135F)." And maybe a quote from his wife Asha telling of her relief and joy at the success of the trip: "When I heard that he had broken the record, I became numb in mind and heart". I'm sure there's a funny to be made about that.)
CAREFUL, THERE IS NOTHING ELSE INTERESTING BELOW!!
Let me be the first to say "How, Keemosabee!"
What's that you said?...
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
Na, that is if you had a million. If you had a billion you would need to do 200 chicks at the same time.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Maybe Saddam was the only one that could not understand the definition. Everyone else took the notion quite seriously.
Autonomous Retard -- Is your camp safe? UnsafeCamp.com
http://home.att.net/~1.elliott/JOEKITTINGER.HTML "On August 16, 1960, Captain Joe Kittinger jumped from a huge helium balloon at a height of 102,800 feet, almost 20 miles above the earth! Captain Kittinger fell for a full 4 minutes, 36 seconds." http://www.thatvideosite.com/view/1164.html
This story is full of a lot of hot air.
You're probably an American.
Well, aren't there people in your country who are billionaires? People who have far more money than they could possibly spend? Well, there are also people who live in abject poverty too.
Tell me, how is that any different?
P.S. The earthquake affected parts of India too.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
a world record set in 2 hours, in a pressurized cabin. This guy has the guts to prove that he has money.
I wouldn't rate this as a troll, but for sure the ethnic conflicts that are oh-so-important to people in one part of the world seem trivial to those of another. The enmity between India and Pakistan is bit hard to grasp for an American like me: likewise the bald racism between blacks and whites (and yes, it goes both ways) that has been a part of American culture since our Civil War seems generally perceived as silly by some Europeans I've spoken to.
... all those things are artifacts of our similarities, points of tangency, more than our differences. It's easy to fear that which is truly different, much harder to hate it.
But when you get right down to it, racism, bigotry
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Ballooning, over land at least, seems like a sport revolutionized by cellphones. Combined with GPS, a ballooner can now land nearly anywhere safe, and just get picked up by a driver.
--
make install -not war
full og gas, no wonder they fly that high :-) (I'm Indian Origin myself BTW)
Scott McNealy to Michael: "Suck my Sun!" Michael Dell to Scott : "Lick my Dell!"
How is this impressive, when Joe Kittinger rode a balloon up to 102,800 feet (31.3km) and then parachuted out of it, breaking the speed of sound with just his body?
My point is still valid. Pick any country and you will find people who are shockingly rich and those who are shockingly poor.
Short of forced redistribution of wealth on a massive scale that puts us all on a level playing field, that's always going to be the case, so why make a big deal about this particular case?
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Is that the one where you raise Indians? I don't think I've played that one.
Moderated "Offtopic"?? Surely you've never been to Mumbai. Actually, once they become wealthy enough to stop polluting the sea around Mumbai, it will be an INCREDIBLY beautiful city, with miles of (what will be)pristine beaches surrounding it.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
No, we Americans have zero billionaires. I think that pretty much refutes your entire point quite nicely, doesn't it? Yes, hm, well maybe you should stick to the facts, sir, and leave all these crazy hypothetical angles where they belong - in the hearts and minds of naive little children who still dare to dream of a world where America has billionaires.
Oh look, you were modded "Insightful". You're probably a European. Well, aren't there shoes in your country? I'm sure some people have lots of shoes. And we all know that you can't judge a person until you walk a mile in his shoes - unaccredited anecdotes are the ace of trump in the suite of proof in this game of debates. Therefore who are you to judge these mythical, fantasy beings (who don't really exist) called American billionaires? You haven't even worn all the shoes in Europe, let alone make-believe sandals of fictional American billionaires. I rest my case! I SAY GOOD DAY SIR.
1 million => 2 chicks
1 billion or 1000 million => 2 * 1000 = 2000 chicks!!
Unless the chicks you get are non-uniformly priced, in which case you may get a bulk discount and even more.
This is of course a slashdotter's dream.
As such.
You need help.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
As far as I know, Auguste Piccard flew up to 23000 m in the 1930s. So how is this 21,290m a new record?
My point is still valid. Pick any country and you will find people who are shockingly rich and those who are shockingly poor.
My point, made through satire, is that this is the most uninteresting sentiment I've seen moderated as "Insightful" in a long, long time. And as far as Slashdot moderation goes, that's saying a hell of a lot.
I need help, you say. Hm. You're the guy who's posting a whole string of thoughtful comments to point out that some people are rich and some people are poor. WOAH. It just hit me. YOU'RE RIGHT. Man, forgive me. The sheer brilliance of this new, unprecedented concept has just made its impression felt. I totally retract all my satire and sarcasm. You, sir, deserve a drink on the house.
How someone chooses to moderate my posts (if at all) is down to them, not me. Seems that your issue is with the moderators, not with me. Perhaps you should address your posts accordingly.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
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(\(\
(-.-) Give me back my damn feet!
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Why is it that when you believe something it's an opinion, but when I believe something it's a manifesto?
That is a very good suggestion.
Meh. You posted it. I've long since given up on the moderation system.
Zoo Tycoon was OK but Prison Tycoon sux0red. Indian Tycoon sounds interesting. Is it like a Wild West theme?
From the title, I was thinking someone set a new record on the NES game "Balloon Fight." But I guess this is also noteworthy. :p
No seriously. Mumbai is the only megalopolis in the world with a leopard problem.
More than mere navel gazing.
Then he has a few earthquake victims with which he can show as the example .... eh ?
How many beans make five, anyhow ?
Personally I preferred Kittinger's return to earth. He jumped over the side and performed the world's highest skydive. From 69000 to a deploy height of around 3000ft you'd get over 5 minutes of freefall. :) That would be worth setting a new height record to do!