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man attempts to break sounds barrier using only gravity
Mike_82 - 14/10/12 at 05:00 PM

For any one thats interested...

120,000ft sky dive, estimated free fall speed to be over mach 1!

http://www.redbullstratos.com/live/

theconrodkid - 14/10/12 at 06:01 PM

watching it
good luck !

pif - 14/10/12 at 06:14 PM

wow, that looks like he busted the sound barrier.

steve m - 14/10/12 at 06:18 PM

I take the Darwin award contender, comment back!

well done

perksy - 14/10/12 at 06:19 PM

Down Safe


Fair play to the bloke that was high

unijacko67 - 14/10/12 at 06:20 PM

Jesus, thought he was a gonner when he started spining. Thank god he's ok.

JoelP - 14/10/12 at 06:20 PM

Im curious about the sound barrier claim, is it just that his speed exceeded the speed of sound at sea level, or did he really create a sonic boom?

Either way, looks like he's down ok. I never considered the practical appliaction of this, that the crew of the space station could theoretically evacuate in a similar fashion!

theconrodkid - 14/10/12 at 06:23 PM

made it look so easy

Daddylonglegs - 14/10/12 at 06:25 PM

Chuffin impressive! Hat's off to the guy

What the hell must have been going through the man's mind as he stood on that platform

Love the statement though: "I wish you could see what I can see" Bet it was pretty damn special!!

ditchlewis - 14/10/12 at 06:57 PM

Awsome just watched it Live on the news. When he fell away from the capsule my heart was in my mouth.

One brave guy.
Ditch

omega 24 v6 - 14/10/12 at 07:09 PM

Must have been difficult keeping level with cahoonas that size.
AMAZING.

loggyboy - 14/10/12 at 07:28 PM

quote:
Originally posted by JoelP
Im curious about the sound barrier claim, is it just that his speed exceeded the speed of sound at sea level, or did he really create a sonic boom?

Either way, looks like he's down ok. I never considered the practical appliaction of this, that the crew of the space station could theoretically evacuate in a similar fashion!



http://www.redbullstratos.com/science/speed-of-sound/

Is it really possible for a human being to break the speed of sound in freefall?

If calculations prove to be accurate, and Felix is successful in his attempts to control his position, he will accelerate from standstill to the speed of sound - that's 0 to approximately 690 miles per hour in 40 seconds or less.


.....

Sometimes shock waves even collide with each other, a phenomenon known as the "shock-shock interaction," creating results that can be similar to an explosion. Fortunately, the impact of shock waves becomes less severe with higher altitude, because air becomes less dense. And once an object passes through that imaginary "sound barrier" to catch up with and surpass the speed of sound, flight is smooth.

[Edited on 14-10-12 by loggyboy]

slingshot2000 - 14/10/12 at 08:55 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Daddylonglegs
"I wish you could see what I can see" Bet it was pretty damn special!!



I would hope (and imagine it will), that quote goes down in history for a long time !
Watched it with 12yr old son and he was gob-smacked ! (cannot usually shut him up!).

Regards
Jon

nick205 - 14/10/12 at 09:43 PM

watched it live on youtube...pretty damned spectacular! even swmbo stopped yakking when she sat down to watch.

Alan B - 15/10/12 at 01:18 PM

Just watched...he had a parachute!!.............the soft bastard.....

Seriously though......amazing feat...well done...

02GF74 - 17/10/12 at 09:57 AM

depending on what you want to believe, ti was not that impressive - here is anothe take on it
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/five-reasons-why-baumgartner-jump-not-great-unless-163435075.html

Mr Whippy - 17/10/12 at 11:21 AM

quote:
Originally posted by JoelP

Either way, looks like he's down ok. I never considered the practical appliaction of this, that the crew of the space station could theoretically evacuate in a similar fashion!


there's a big difference in that the space station is moving relative to the ground at about 25,000mph where as he was probably less than 100mph across the ground depending on the winds. If the astronauts tried this they’d burn up in the atmosphere much as the space shuttle did as he plowed into the atmosphere, plus they’d not fall in the same way as him jumping out the capsule, instead he’d just float down if he pushed away before turning into a fireball!

Nasa did look at a wearable reentry suit at one time that was like an inflatable balloon with foam at the bottom that burnt away during reentry to absorb the heat but I don’t think it got off the drawing board

Fred W B - 17/10/12 at 11:22 AM

I haven't watched the coverage, and was curious to know if he deployed the parachute manually.

I was thinking that they would have had some sort of remote deployment device in case he did pass out.

Regards

Fred W B

40inches - 17/10/12 at 11:29 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Fred W B
I haven't watched the coverage, and was curious to know if he deployed the parachute manually.

I was thinking that they would have had some sort of remote deployment device in case he did pass out.

Regards

Fred W B

The answer is yes to both questions.

And Eurosport may not have been impressed, but I sure as hell was!

Mr Whippy - 17/10/12 at 11:37 AM

would have been much better had he been sitting in a car or riding a stuffed horse and wearing a cowboy outfit oh that would have made me laugh

bobinspain - 17/10/12 at 01:13 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Mr Whippy
would have been much better had he been sitting in a car or riding a stuffed horse and wearing a cowboy outfit oh that would have made me laugh



The way Top Gear's going, that'll be Hammond's challenge in the next series.

David Jenkins - 17/10/12 at 03:18 PM

quote:
Originally posted by 02GF74
depending on what you want to believe, ti was not that impressive - here is anothe take on it
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/five-reasons-why-baumgartner-jump-not-great-unless-163435075.html


What a miserable bunch of buggers!

It took a great deal of courage to go up in that balloon, knowing that if something went wrong (or he chickened out) then the best he could hope for was a very rough ride back down in the capsule. Looking at the video of the capsule's return it would have been a VERY bad ride!

When he was standing on that platform he could have seen the whole side of the globe - I would love to have seen that (but not the ride home, thank you!)

snakebelly - 17/10/12 at 04:40 PM

completely agree David, forget the technology, hype etc and the bottom line is that he had the balls to actually climb out and launch himself...i for one salute him if only for his huge spherical objects1

bobinspain - 17/10/12 at 07:12 PM

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-10/secrets-successful-space-dive


This puts it in perpective. Balloon the size of a football field and the thickness of a dry-cleaning bag, (0.0008".

Joe Kittinger jumped from 102,000ft in 1960 from an open gondola

Baumgartner's balloon needed ten times the volume of Kittinger's to ensure he got to 120,000ft.

etc etc. Interesting stuff.

02GF74 - 17/10/12 at 07:39 PM

^^^^ is it really that different from getting onto an aeroplane? Something goes wrong, the end result is the same.

greggors84 - 17/10/12 at 08:44 PM

But when you get in a aeroplane you hope that you will land safely the other side. He got in the balloon knowing that he would have to jump out at the top.

That Eurosport article is terrible, of course his suit was engineered to not to rip, but as nothing like that had been used before, things can go wrong! Its like saying a plane is engineered not to crash with a massive factor of safety so they never do actually crash!

Sounds like someone just trying to get publicity off the back of it by trying to say it wasn't that great without actually having anything to write about. No matter what you say he still went up 25 miles in a balloon and jumped out. Fair play to him for having the balls to do it and fair play to Red Bull for spending that much money on doing this instead of hiring over paid 'celebrities' or sports people to endorse their products like some soft drink companies do.

bobinspain - 17/10/12 at 08:50 PM

^^^^^^

If you decompress in an aircraft, you've got emergency oxygen and provided the pilot's not incapacitated, and the aircraft's not catastrophically damaged, there's a good chance of a successful emergency landing. Generally, folk die in the ensuing crash, not in the air. The ground is very hard and unforgiving if you hit it at 150 kts or so.

Baumgartner decompresses on the way up/down, above 60,000ft he dies as his blood boils away. Nothing to do with impact or proximity to the ground, so I think there's a difference. Unless of course either way you end up dead, then there's no difference at all. (don't fancy having the blood boiling though). If I had to choose, it'd be flat out in a vertical dive at 400kts).


ps This was meant for O2GF74. A post snuck inbetween us.

[Edited on 17/10/12 by bobinspain]

SteveWalker - 17/10/12 at 09:20 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Mr Whippy
would have been much better had he been sitting in a car or riding a stuffed horse and wearing a cowboy outfit oh that would have made me laugh


Come on! Extreme ironing is where it's at!

SteveW

02GF74 - 18/10/12 at 07:51 PM

forget the decompression, according to that article it was not going to happen but he had a parachute, that would self deploy in an emergency, people on planes do not have parachutes so basically they are stuffed.

Steve Hignett - 18/10/12 at 08:11 PM

Please excuse me if I've missed a glutton of positive/constructive posts in the last few months by 02GF74, because since I was last regularly on and this evening (now I've just lost my job 4 hours ago), but it seems to me that every single one of your posts is something along the lines of petty/malicious/childish/nasty/pathetic/contentious/belittling/bullshit/nonsensical/pointless drivel. And in all honesty it just portrays you as a juvenile short sighted imbecil...

Now granted I may be in a bad mood since being made redundant out of the blue at half four today, but I still find it incredibly grating and crass when someone is as petty and negative as you... Grow up FFS.

Steve
ps I need a job!