[Durham Giant]

Faster than the speed of sound : Sun Oct 14, 2012 6:22 pm  

Congratulations to Felix Baumgartner who just parachuted fronm 124,000 feet.

He broke the spped of sound whilst in freefall.

balls of steel i tell ye. A gripping 20 minutes watching it live on TV.

Re: Faster than the speed of sound : Sun Oct 14, 2012 6:27 pm  

Durham Giant wrote:

Congratulations to Felix Baumgartner who just parachuted fronm 124,000 feet.

He broke the spped of sound whilst in freefall.

balls of steel i tell ye. A gripping 20 minutes watching it live on TV.

128,000 feet.

Amazing viewing, I'm sure everyone froze for a moment when he got into that spin.

Well done lad. Only Audley Harrison has gone down faster.

Re: Faster than the speed of sound : Sun Oct 14, 2012 6:37 pm  

It's the biggest fall since Jimmy Savile.

Re: Faster than the speed of sound : Sun Oct 14, 2012 10:10 pm  

833.9mph

Takes some nerve to do that, bet it got scary when he ended up in a spin too.

Re: Faster than the speed of sound : Mon Oct 15, 2012 7:24 am  

I gather 'terminal velocity' does not occur at such heights.

Its good to know that the human race still has such nutters in it and 'elf n safety' never put the kybosh on his feat.

[John_D]

Re: Faster than the speed of sound : Mon Oct 15, 2012 7:53 am  

I painted a fence yesterday. Where's my Purple Heart?

Re: Faster than the speed of sound : Mon Oct 15, 2012 8:39 am  

John_D wrote:

I painted a fence yesterday. Where's my Purple Heart?

John, if you can break the speed of sound doing that, you can have a purple heart, a bronze liver and any shade of spleen you want.

Re: Faster than the speed of sound : Mon Oct 15, 2012 9:38 am  

It was a great watch. A proper popcorn moment when they were concerned about his spin at the start, that would have made incredible viewing had it gone wrong. Kind of like watching Evil Knievel back in the day I guess. My first thought was why though? What was the point of it? But I guess it's good to see people willing to push the boundaries. Next step I guess is for him to do it with those wingsuits the base jumpers use.

Re: Faster than the speed of sound : Mon Oct 15, 2012 10:01 am  

Saddened! wrote:

Next step I guess is for him to do it with those wingsuits the base jumpers use.

I may be completely wrong here and you may have said this with tongue firmly in cheek. However, If you didnt, google Felix. Hes the Basejump king!

Hes flown across the channel, raced a plane, based jumped the worlds largest cave and tallest buildings. He sets the bar for all base jumpers!

Re: Faster than the speed of sound : Mon Oct 15, 2012 1:38 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

My first thought was why though? What was the point of it?

To see if it could be done. To test the equipment for future uses (the suit, the capsule, the human body). He was wearing all sorts of sensors and the data will apparently be used to test loads of things, such as testing whether high altitude flights can be safe - how long would pilots be able to survive, etc