sky dive from 120,000 feet

[tractorpuller]

Quote:




So what did the
drogue chute "grab on to" then?
Don't know if you were being sarcastic or not, but here goes.

No, I was actually asking, so thanks for the reply

From the videos I've seen of Kittingers jump, the area of his drag chute didn't look much bigger than him, so I didn't think it would help much in beginning of his jump.
Thanks for clarifying.

Rgds

[Dg800]

No, I was actually asking, so thanks for the reply

From the videos I've seen of Kittingers jump, the area of his drag chute didn't look much bigger than him, so I didn't think it would help much in beginning of his jump.
Thanks for clarifying.

You're welcome.
Modern tandem parachute systems actually use a similar system in order to prevent the tandem master/passenger pair from tumbling out of control, and also to reduce terminal speed so as to minimize parachute deployment shock. The drogue then acts as pilot chute to deploy the main canopy, I don't know if Kittinger's setup worked in a similar fashion or whether the drogue was eventually ditched.

Ciao,

Dg800

[Dg800]

Congratulations are in order to Mr. Baumgartner for actually pulling it off (and living to tell the tale).

From the accounts available it looks like he did not have any drogue deployed as it would have made the "frefall" part in "highest parachute jump" record void, but he did have one ready to be deployed any time were he to become too unstable to safely continue the jump. He did come close to deploying it as he eventually started tumbling head over heels, but managed to become stable again and continued the freefall until the planned deployment altitude.

[Fostex]

This onboard video shows him entering a rather nasty spin and then managing to recover.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=fa1_1350274678

[MichaelJP59]

Looked pretty unpleasant - he also ended up pulling his chute earlier than planned and not breaking the free fall time record, perhaps he wasn't feeling too good after all the tumbling.

That camera's a bit deceptive though - a few commentators were going on about how he was so high the curvature of the earth was clear. Fair enough but the "fish-eye" camera makes it look as though he was higher than the space station

[mikehallam]

[The commentators did mention the lens effect]

mikehallam

[Tableview]

Question : Did he freefall at +Mach 1? I am asking this as the speed of sound increases with altitude, but I don't know to what extent, nor at what absolute speed (as opposed to Mach) he fell.

[Morris542]

I am asking this as the speed of sound increases with altitude

Er no. Speed of sound decreases as the temperature decreases. Speed of Sound at different altitudes (km/h, mph, knots)

According to my ATPL books:

Local speed of sound = 38.94 √Temperature

[Avitor]

Is he bonkers?

[Mark1234]

Probably..

This was interesting wrt length of freefall: Red Bull Stratos: Why Didn't Felix Free Fall for 5 Minutes? | Wired Science | Wired.com