US retired air force Colonel Joseph Kittinger, whose 1960 parachute jump from a height of almost 20 miles (32 km) above the Earth stood as world record for more over 50 years old, deceased in Florida, 94 years old.
His death on Friday was announced through former US Congressman John Mika and other friends. cause had lung cancer.
Kittinger, then air force captain and a pilot who gained worldwide fame by making three jumps over 10 months from a gondola lifted into the stratosphere on large helium balloons. The Excelsior project aimed to help design ejection systems for military high altitude pilots missions.
Wearing a space suit and 60 pounds (27 kg) of equipmentKittinger almost died during projectx first jump in November 1959, when gear out of action after he jumped 14.5 miles. He lost consciousness when he hit spin it was 22 times in force of gravity. He was saved when his automatic parachute opened.
Four weeks later Kittinger made his second jump from just over 14 miles above the surface. This time it wasn’t problems.
Kittinger record jump came on August 16, 1960 in New Mexico desert. His suit malfunctioned when he climbed without sealing off his right arm, swollen to twice normal size before he jumped from a height of 102,800 feet – more than 19 miles above the surface.
Free fall in thin atmosphere, a Florida pilot passed 600 miles per hour (965 km / h) before it gradually thickened. air slowed his fall to about 150 mph when his parachute opened at 18,000 feet (5.5 km).
“There are no way you can visualize speed’, Kittinger told Florida Trend magazine. in 2011. “You see nothing to see how fast You go. You have no depth perception. If you are in a car driving down the road and you close your eyes you have no idea what you have speed is. Same if you free fall from space. There are no pointers.
“You know you’re going very fastbut you don’t feel it. You don’t have 614 mph winds on you. I could only hear my breath in helmet”.
His record stood until 2012, when the Austrian Felix Baumgartner jumped from a height of 24 miles (38.6 km) over the New Mexico desert, reaching supersonic speed of 844 miles per hour (1360 km/h). Kittinger was an adviser.
Kittinger stayed in in air force after his jumps, serving three tours of duty during the Vietnam War. He got shot down over North Vietnam in May 1972, but ejected. He was captured and spent 11 months in Hanoi prisoner-of-military camp being tortured.
He retired from air force in 1978 and settled in Orlando areawhere he became a local icon. The park is named after him.
He survived from his wife Sherry.
