Getting high legally

[yoda313]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051126/ap_on_re_as/india_hot_air_balloon

Ok false advertising but thats amazing - 70,000 feet in a hot air ballon????

[Faustus]

You kids wanna get high?

[thecoalman]

How about 102,000 in a helium filled one.... then jump.

A month later on Dec. 11, 1959, Kittinger hurled himself from Excelsior II at 74,700 feet, and again, lived to tell scientists what it was like. Keep in mind that calculations for these jumps weren’t made by Cray supercomputers, nor IBM’s Big Blue or by Bill Gates and his posse of eggheads. Nope. Instead, a group of Air Force “poindexters” did all the number crunching, guys with slide rules and no social life, and Kittinger trusted them implicitly.

His faith in their abilities embold-ened Kittinger to take his final plunge on Aug. 16, 1960. He ascended to 102,800 feet in Excelsior III, prayed “Lord, take care of me now” and walked out. The first step was a doozy.

“It was a helluva long way down, but the quickest way to get there,” Kittinger said.

By all rights, the captain should’ve scrubbed the mission. He’d lost partial pressure in the suit’s right glove and blood pooled in his hand, causing extreme pain and paralyzing it. But he didn’t want to let his team down. So he jumped and rocketed downward at 714 mph, literally falling faster than a speeding bullet and becoming the first man to go supersonic without the benefit of an aircraft. He dropped in a free fall for 4 minutes, 36 seconds before his parachute blossomed.

“I had absolutely no sense of the speed,” Kittinger said. “I didn’t hear a sonic boom; I didn’t even hear any whooshing or whistling of the wind. But when I flipped over and looked back at my balloon, it sure was an eerie sight — the sky was black as night but I was bathed in sunshine.”

http://www.af.mil/news/airman/1299/ballon.htm

[ZAPPER]

Holy cow, thank you very much please.

[Guest]

I prefer this kind of ballon.

http://www.resort.com/~banshee/Info/N2O/

[MackemX]

How about 102,000 in a helium filled one.... then jump.

A month later on Dec. 11, 1959, Kittinger hurled himself from Excelsior II at 74,700 feet, and again, lived to tell scientists what it was like. Keep in mind that calculations for these jumps weren’t made by Cray supercomputers, nor IBM’s Big Blue or by Bill Gates and his posse of eggheads. Nope. Instead, a group of Air Force “poindexters” did all the number crunching, guys with slide rules and no social life, and Kittinger trusted them implicitly.

His faith in their abilities embold-ened Kittinger to take his final plunge on Aug. 16, 1960. He ascended to 102,800 feet in Excelsior III, prayed “Lord, take care of me now” and walked out. The first step was a doozy.

“It was a helluva long way down, but the quickest way to get there,” Kittinger said.

By all rights, the captain should’ve scrubbed the mission. He’d lost partial pressure in the suit’s right glove and blood pooled in his hand, causing extreme pain and paralyzing it. But he didn’t want to let his team down. So he jumped and rocketed downward at 714 mph, literally falling faster than a speeding bullet and becoming the first man to go supersonic without the benefit of an aircraft. He dropped in a free fall for 4 minutes, 36 seconds before his parachute blossomed.

“I had absolutely no sense of the speed,” Kittinger said. “I didn’t hear a sonic boom; I didn’t even hear any whooshing or whistling of the wind. But when I flipped over and looked back at my balloon, it sure was an eerie sight — the sky was black as night but I was bathed in sunshine.”

http://www.af.mil/news/airman/1299/ballon.htm

I've seen the film of that jump as he had a video camera also, pretty cool and the no sound thing must have been weird 8)

[ZAPPER]

I read a book about a guy that was testing the parachutes for this or something close. Yeah, there is a job that I want. 700 MPH and pull the ripcord! No thanks. It has been years since I read it, but I think that they had troubles with oxegen masks freezing and chutes ripping apart and so on. Anyways in the book (I don't think it was ficton but could have been) One of the guys that kept having trouble got branded as a trouble maker or something and kept butting heads with the Brass.

[MackemX]

didn't that guy have a problem with his glove or something?

anyway here's the video of the fall

http://www.dumpalink.com/media/1132396191/The_Speed_of_Sound

[thecoalman]

Yeah, there is a job that I want. 700 MPH and pull the ripcord! No thanks.

I don't think he was going quite that fast when he pulled the ripcord, probably more around 200MPH. Terminal velocity is between 120 and 180, at least from what I was just reading. He slowed down considerably as the density of the atmosphere increased. He was only able to attain those speeds because the atmosphere was so thin at 102,000 ft.

Still f$#@$g nuts. I'd do it though.

[ZAPPER]

hitting 700 for TV in thin air and then creeping (if you want to call 700MPH creeping) into denser air has got to be rough on the suit. I thought that TV in a regular sport dive was like 100 max and head down?

[BJ_M]

how about hitting 1000mph in free fall ?

did this guy ever jump ?

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.08/space_pr.html

[BJ_M]

btw -- they would not have used a VIDEO camera in 1959 ...

they would have used a 16mm film camera - and many models were designed for even harsher use (nuke testing for example)

[MackemX]

btw -- they would not have used a VIDEO camera in 1959 ...

they would have used a 16mm film camera - and many models were designed for even harsher use (nuke testing for example)

:P :P :P

smart arse but I knew what I meant

[ZAPPER]

I got to find that book now! It may have only been like a chapter or two in another military book or something, but it had all kinds of names, dates and such about this kind of stuff. There was defenitatly some kind of struggle with the Brass on getting this type of stuff done. To the point that some of the expeirements may have actually been renagade or out of the chain of command. The politics were a bigger challenge than the test for some. And when things went well the brass took the credit.

[thecoalman]

I thought that TV in a regular sport dive was like 100 max and head down?

No idea really, I just pulled that out of the first webpage I found. It said between 120 and 180. I saw this on the History or discovery channell quite a while ago, I know they mentioned that the atmosphere slowed him down.....

[Guest]

Big whip. I wanna see someone pull an re-entry.That would be impressive