"I'd like to give a special one fingered salute to all the people who said he would come apart when he hit supersonic"-Joe Kittinger
Redbull Stratos
- Thread starter boogenman
- Start date
That guy seems like a 100% pure badass. That jump in 1960 was insanity with the kind of technology he had behind it, and his attitude about Baumgartner going after his record has been all class. Love it.
That spin that Felix was in and then able to control once he got into thicker air was insane. He was lucky not to black out. Mad Props to Felix for really going where no one has gone before.
I remember reading that his suit was set up to auto deploy the drogue if he was experiencing 3.5g for more than 6 seconds so that might have bailed him out either way, but yeah that was scary seeing that in real time. Pretty impressive.
"even Baumgartner seemed taken aback when Utley detailed how fast he had fallen at one point -- 833.9 mph, or Mach 1.24, smashing his goal to break the sound barrier."
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/14/us/skydiver-record-attempt/index.html?hpt=hp_c1
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/14/us/skydiver-record-attempt/index.html?hpt=hp_c1
Yeah I just saw that article. I wonder what it was like to break the sound barrier.
At the altitude he was at, "the sound barrier" itself, was effectively nothing more than an arbitrary number. The idea of the sounds barrier was that the air around the aircraft was too dense to break through (until Chuck and the X1). But at the altitude that Felix was at, the air is so thin, that while still crazy fast, the speed itself and the "sound barrier" really have much to do with each other. (which is why he didn't explode)
Foul, confusing speculators by citing facts...
By arbitrary I am sure you mean a direct mathematical relationship with the density of air as defined by the Newton-Laplace equation. When old Chuck broke the sound barrier he only went Mach 1.06, or about 807 mph for his altitude, slower than Felix. The challenge with trans-sonic flight was never an issue with breaking through a "dense" wall of air but in controlling the aircraft. As the airflow becomes supersonic the dynamic characteristics of the plane change, if not considered in the design the aircraft can become unresponsive or worse unstable.
I'm not saying it was easy. I just mean that reaching 330 m/s (or whatever the speed of sound is), and I mean the actual number, does not have associated with it, the "dramatic" effects of surpassing the sound barrier. (all the stuff you mentioned).
Chuck first did it at like 45000 ft or something...pretty high as compared to an F-15 nowadays.
I just think people have this image of him smashing through a pressure wave and sonic booms etc.
Chuck first did it at like 45000 ft or something...pretty high as compared to an F-15 nowadays.
I just think people have this image of him smashing through a pressure wave and sonic booms etc.
Meanwhile Felix was jumping... http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/15/us/nevada-yeager-anniversary-flight/index.html
I like their coverage of the Rampage more than this guy falling for 4 minutes.
Ooops... 
Smooth landing...and that's really all that matters!
