they are at 75k feet on their way to 120k feet to jump from. after delays the ascent is going on real time as I type. seems about 30mins or so from actual jump http://www.redbullstratos.com/live/
So they can do HD 100% no issues live coverage from a balloon @ 116,768ft for free, yet pikes peak couldn't... oh and that was $5... On topic now Not long to go to the jump!
that was fun to watch, I found internet play wasn't "live". had 1 minute delay from what CNN was showing, but CNN wouldn't show everything. had to watch on the "live" site jump, deployment, and the landing.
They mentioned that BBC & Nat Geo were there filming this and the backstory over the preparation for today. Those will have more footage so it'll be worth watching out for those to get more details. Pretty amazing accomplishment. I can't imagine stepping off that "skateboard".
And it is exactly the 65 years after the first man broke the barrier of sound - the great Chuck Yeager. I wonder if he watched the show. Well done Felix and Joe! Matthias
Yeager broke it again today, he went for a ride. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/10/14/8-year-old-chuck-yeager-flies-again-re-enacts-sound-barrier-flight-on-its-65th/
That is almost equally as cool. Tough to beat a dude in a pressure suit though! That being said - Yeager remains a giant. Unreal what he and others did with less computing power than the iPad I'm typing this on. (hat tip to Bob and hs slide rule!)
I watched the entire event this morning on the Velocity Channel. I notice they are rebroadcasting the entire show tomorrow (Monday) morning at 8:00 am Central. What a fascinating event. Although as a pilot I must admit I have never had the desire to jump out of a perfectly good aircraft! Charlie
Yep. A great he is! Just not the first to break the sound barrier.. http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/mach.html Edit: The first was a North American F-86 prototype flown by test pilot George Welch. Great read from the Air&Space mag back in 1999 taken from a book...exerpt: "The entire X-1 flight test team was at Pancho’s that Friday evening waiting for the data reduction people to show up with the official figures. Yeager and Pancho were huddled in a corner. The X-1 pilot had a furrowed brow. He was trying to explain to Pancho that he might not have been pointing toward the Fly Inn when he finally pushed through the big barrier. That might explain the absence of a boom earlier in the day, when he was virtually certain he had finally made the first supersonic flight. When Pancho pointed out that Welch had sure made one hell of a boom more than a week ago, Yeager insisted that it was just a fluke. Pancho arched her eyebrows and noted that it had heated up a stable full of fillies at her hacienda."
Okay can somebody please explain to me how come he fell so fast. I thought every object had a terminal velocity: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/airfri2.html Thus is the only reason he went so fast is because the air was so thin due to the height?, otherwise I don't get it. Gravity is constant and thus jumping from extra height should not make any difference, you will just sit on your terminal velocity for longer. Can somebody explain this to me please. Thanks Pete
Terminal velocity only applies in atmosphere. Gravity is a constant acceleration, not velocity. So you will keep accelerating until something acts to slow you down. It could be air, or impact with earth.
Thanks and HobbsTC. So how thick is our atmosphere as he was only 39 km's up. So the fact that apparently he went faster must be due to less air resistance up that high?, because he was still in the atmosphere. This is the only reason I can see why his terminal velocity was higher than anybody else. As he approached the ground he will have slowed down as the air resistance increased. Interesting. I guess this is why aircraft save fuel by flying higher. Also this record is relatively easy to break, just got to jump from a higher distance. Also the fact that he was spinning at the beginning would have reduced his ultimate speed as surely less aerodynamic while spinning. I also would have thought jumping within a specially designed capsule would have provided a high top speed as more aerodynamic ... Pete
Absolutely... easy... The hard part is getting higher As the atmospheric pressure drops the volume of the balloon increases... getting a big enough balloon, with enough hydrogen in it (lighter than helium), that won't pop (the fabric of his balloon was as thin as the bags your clothes come back from drycleaners in), would probably be harder than doing it by using a rocket A capsule would then be a craft... which wouldn't then be freefall
