Pondering your first base jump? Perhaps you already have a pylon lined up and the parachute in the post. This nice person on youtube has filmed the experience for you. Draw your own conclusions.
Tag Archive for 'parachuting'
A very soothing vid starring Icarus Canopies testing out some of their creations in Norway. We’ll cover something non flight-related soon, honest.
Who do you reckon has pulled off the highest parachute jump in history? Richard Branson? A lantern- jawed skydiver draped in energy drink sponsorship? Someone tripping out of the Space Shuttle?
Nope. It was Captain Joe Kittinger of the USAF.
Here are some numbers and a pretty pic before we proceed.
50 years ago. 102,000 feet (31 kilometres) . 614 mph. 4 minutes and 36 seconds.
Kittinger’s jump was part of Project Excelsior – a study by the US government into the effects of bailing out at high altitudes. By the late 1950s aircraft were reaching enormous heights and the safety of crews who’d ejected was in serious doubt. Tests on dummies showed that flight crew would enter a potentially fatal spin long before they ever reached the ground.
A refined system using a two stage parachute was developed – a small chute to deploy in the upper atmosphere to prevent spinning, and a larger, more conventional canopy for thicker air.
Captain Kittinger was the test director for the project and he made all three test jumps himself.
Utilising a helium balloon with an open gondola to heights that no aircraft could yet reach, Kittinger wore a full pressure suit to protect him from the near space-like conditions.
Capt Kittinger next to his office
The first jump nearly ended in disaster when the stabiliser chute delpoyed too soon, wrapping itself around Kittinger’s neck and causing him to lose consciousness. His life was saved by the automatic opening of his larger chute.
The second jump took place only three weeks later from 75,00o feet. It was a success.
On his final record breaking jump in 1960 he lost the use of his right hand on the ascent due to a pressure seal failing. He elected not to inform the ground crew. It took 91 minutes to reach 102,800 feet. He drifted at that altitude for 12 minutes until he was over the landing area and then he stepped out into space.
Kittinger reached 9/10ths of the speed of sound. He experienced temperatures down to -70. The entire descent took 13 minutes and 45 seconds.
No one has topped his record since, though there are people such as Michel Fournier and Steve Truglia who’ve been trying their hardest. Perhaps it’ll never be beaten.
Think of something cool and the chances are that the military have already created it, tested it and usually done a few folks a serious mischief in the process.
The US military, especially during the 50s and 60s, experimented with countless mind-bending techno wonders. From rocket belts to nuclear-powered towns under the arctic ice, if you take the time to dig around a little you’ll find they almost always either got there first or made things happen that you’d dismiss as fantasy in an instant.
One such toy is the skyhook – aka the Fulton surface to air recovery system.
Its most recent starring role was in Hong Kong in The Dark Knight. It’s also been known to pull James Bond from the occasional spot of bother too.
But this is no example of cinematic fancy, the skyhook worked and was on the Special Forces cool stuff menu for nearly 40 years.
An evolution of a British mail pick up system, the skyhook was developed by Robert Fulton in the 1950s for the CIA. It could pluck you from the ground into a moving aircraft from anywhere on Earth.
The system worked by the passenger/victim releasing a balloon attached to a nylon line leading back to a harness. A C-130 Hercules would catch the balloon by flying straight into it, hooking the line and hauling you into the sky without slowing down.
The initial tests were carried out with weights. The first live subject was a perfectly innocent pig. On being winched into the aircraft the pig regained its bearings and then started to attack the crew.
In 1952 the first human was pulled from the ground and eventually the system was used successfully in the Arctic to extract US operators from abandoned Soviet ice stations.
Only one fatality was recorded in the history of the skyhook until it was eventually retired in 1996.
We reckon it’s time for a comeback.
