

Skydiver Felix Baumgartner seeks to break sound barrier - hnal943
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8475288.stm

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mrduncan
He's being sponsored by Red Bull (<http://www.redbullstratos.com/>). Their
marketing video is actually really cool, it includes plenty of footage of
Kittinger.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyGmTV0q2kY> (make sure you switch to HD)

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sp332
I used to think that Red Bull just put their logo on cool stunts, but it turns
out that they have a really competent team of engineers and fabricators to
pull this off. In fact, Joeseph Kittinger, who holds the record currently,
said they were the first crew to approach him that sounded like they could do
this without killing someone (since 1960!), so he's actually working with them
on this.

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diego
"It is likely that in his long freefall of more than five minutes, he will
exceed the speed of sound - the first person to do so without the aid of a
machine."

If he can reach 120k feet, I bet there is a machine involved in the process.
Why not just say he's the first person to do it through freefall?

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sp332
They mean his acceleration will be without the aid of a machine.

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diego
Again, it's not true. He's just converting the potential energy stored with
the aid of a machine into kinetic energy.

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cma
If you are going to be this pedantic, then even if he plans on growing wings
and flying up there, you will still bitch because the meal he plans to eat the
night before will be harvested by combine.

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jluxenberg
More details on the suit in this article / video:
[http://www.pureskydive.com/2010/03/red-bull-video-reveals-
ne...](http://www.pureskydive.com/2010/03/red-bull-video-reveals-next-gen-
space-suit-and-pressure-helmet-designed-specifically-for-red-bull-stratos-
mission/)

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tkahn6
From a quick Google search, the terminal velocity of a human being is roughly
120 mph. The speed of sound (at sea level) is 761 mph.

How is this feat possible?

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smitjel
My thoughts exactly...I'm sure he'll be carrying extra weight but I still
don't see how this is possible given a certain terminal velocity, like you
said.

*Edit...wikipedia says current world record is 614 mph set by Joseph Kittinger. He used the head down method in high altitude, less dense air. That's still not supersonic though.

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zck
As mentioned in the article, Kittinger "only" jumped from 102,800 feet.
Baumgartner will jump from 120,000. Also, Kittinger was in a "rocking chair"
position, not head-down. (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kittinger>)

