nytimes.com — Jumping from a helium balloon in the stratosphere at least 120,000 feet above Earth. Within about half a minute, he figures, he would be going 690 miles per hour and become the first skydiver to break the speed of sound.
Mar 15, 2010 View in Crawl 4
greevarMar 16, 2010
How can that be possible? Is the air *that* thin that far up? I thought terminal velocity was about 200 mph?
eulacaMar 16, 2010
With linear acc he would have also travelled 4600m in that time.
runnamuck62Mar 16, 2010
I had the privilege of meeting the Mr. Kittinger who currently holds the world record for the highest sky dive. My sister was invited to sing the national anthem at a military event and since both my family and he were special guests, we ended up sitting at the same table. He told us about the jump and said he was fully prepared to die when he jumped out of that balloon. He has more balls than I can ever hope to attain.
stevemtylerMar 17, 2010
it might damage his eardrums when he slows down and it catches up to him. Hes not making as much noise as a jet though, so the total wave might not build up that much.
frostyb007Mar 17, 2010
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" *breath* "aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
Closed AccountMar 17, 2010
That's never the answer.
Closed AccountMar 17, 2010
<a class="user" href="http://pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF097-Astronaut_Fall.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF097-Astronaut_Fall.jp ...</a>
Closed AccountMar 17, 2010
<Velociraptor noises>
anatrajMar 17, 2010
I'm thinking the drag is probably negligible at those heights.