Felix was falling faster than previously thought

According to official data, the Austrian "Skydiver" Felix Baumgartner last October, when falling to Earth from a height of 38 km 624 meters, reached a speed of 1357 km / h , which is 1.25 times the speed of sound

According to initial estimates, the maximum speed of the intrepid skydiver was 16 km/h less and the height from which he jumped was 248 meters more. The height of the jump and the height of the space shuttle Columbia at the time of the disaster, which took the lives of seven astronauts was virtually the same. It is now safe to say that, under certain circumstances, the crew could have survived the fall from that height.

During the free fall Baumgartner's heart rate did not exceed 185 beats per second and his breathing was quite steady. Based on the data obtained from the sensors, it is established that Felix, 34 seconds after the jump into the abyss, reached a speed of Mach 1 at an altitude of 33 km 528 meters. At an altitude of 27 km 800 meters (after 50 seconds), he reached a maximum speed of Mach 1.25 and at an altitude of 23 km (at 64 seconds) he returned to subsonic speeds.

Baumgartner's entire freefall was four minutes and 20 seconds. At 1,500 meters he opened his parachute and landed in the Roswell Desert.

But not everything was going so smoothly.

During the supersonic fall the brave parachutist went into a terrible flat corkscrew and rotated for 13 seconds at a speed of 60 revolutions per minute, experiencing 2g of overload. During this time he made 14-16 revolutions until he regained control of his body.
If the flat corkscrew had lasted longer, about another 6 seconds, the overload would have reached 3.5g and the parachute would have opened automatically. The medics feared that Baumgartner could have been injured incompatible with life if the parachute opened at such speed and altitude. Especially since the temperature at such an altitude was 71 degrees Celsius. С.

Baumgartner broke the previous record set by Air Force officer Joe Kittinger in 1960. Kittinger jumped from an altitude of 31 km, but he did not achieve supersonic speed. Kittinger noted in his report that future work was needed to test a stabilizing parachute at maximum altitudes.

This private project was aimed primarily at saving future space crews in high-altitude disasters.

 

 

Based on foreign press for ForTrader.org