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Baumgartner breaks longest freefall world record
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Red Bull does indeed give you wings. If you still doubt that, ask Felix Baumgartner who jumped down from the edge of space to render the Red Bull Stratos mission successful!
Neil Armstrong may have said the legendary words when man first landed on the moon, but there’s absolutely no doubt that the most giant of all leaps came in 2012 when Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner plunged to the Earth from a height of 1,28,097 feet! If you paid attention to your geography teacher in school, you’d have figured out by now that the height is also the very edge of Space – the end of the Stratosphere and the beginning of the vast black expanse that everyone is so fascinated by and that’s no coincidence.
The team at Red Bull Stratos had been at it for a long time and finally on October 14 2012, a little while after Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber gave Red Bull Racing their first Fomula 1 one-two finish of the season at the Korean Grand Prix, the time was right. Baumgartner’s first attempt had already been fouled by bad weather and as the clock ticked to Sunday, the team was keeping a close eye on wind speed – after all, a tiny gust could put the Austrian’s trajectory way off course!
A special space suit was designed for the attempt and it’s only fitting that one of the men on the team that acted as consultants to the project was none other than Colonel Joe Kittinger. The name may not be as familiar to everyone as Vettel’s but Kittinger who was ranked Captain then, held the previous record for the highest free-fall at 1,02,800 feet back in 1960! The suit itself is a work of extreme engineering being both pressurised but allowing Baumgartner the flexibility in his limbs to control his fall.
The jump lasted all of 9:03 minutes out of which 4:19 minutes were spent in free-fall before the parachute was deployed. While the facts and figures were still being validated at the time of going into print, the Red Bull Stratos mission is expected to set new records for the highest free-fall and highest manned balloon flight as well, leaving the one for longest free-fall still in Kittinger’s name.
But what is even more fascinating is that 43-year old Baumgartner broke the sound-barrier on his trip down to Earth, reaching a top speed of 1,137km/h exactly 65 years since it was first broken by Chuck Yeager in an experimental rocket-powered airplane!
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emzzzy
what other records did he brake
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shopobd2
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Kaia Wilburn
He's hot
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Rehan Conyers
WOW! This stuff is awe-inducing. Congratulations to the man on the mission - Felix Baumgartner. Now guys, I must say that I'm very impressed with the tedious efforts that going into the making of the ZigWheels magazine, every month. In the October edition, I've noticed an improvement in the quality of paper. However, I was very disheartened at the fact that when I flipped the cover of my brand new mag open, I noticed the "binding" part of the magazine isn't strong, hence resulting in the pages not being perfectly intact. I'm not blaming the editorial team for this, but I'd be grateful if you folks could kindly look into the matter. The problem lies with publication facility. And this is the first time such a problem has cropped up because I've been an avid reader of this magazine ever since its inception, and no such issue has arisen before. Kindly look into the matter so that all your readers can have the pleasure of treasuring the mag in a spic-and-span condition, allowing them to pass it on to their grand children! Thank you! :-)Your Loving Reader,Rehan.
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