I remember that too, but I believe I'm right in saying he didn't break the sound barrier, apparently he reached a max speed of 614mph, slowed down by the drogue 'chute he wore. Fantastic achievement nonetheless, but Felix has topped it for sure.
It said on on jump he just reached the sound barrier but The UFAF didn't submit it to civil authorities so it's not Counted.same way a car broke the sound barrier long Before thrust Ssc did it but again was on army turf timed By them so it wasn't recognised
The problem is that Mach 1 is variable dependant on the air density. You can give Mach 1 a value based on the transonic interface at say 20000 ft but that interface is different at sea level. Most calibrations are based on the higher altitude figure because it's that much easier to go that fast that high.
Yup think it's around 750 at sea level and 630 at high level. To do with air pressures, Suppose it's a bit like why you can't get boiling tea on an airliner
Yeah, the denser the medium, the higher the speed. Through air the speed of sound averages out to between 300 and 350 m/s in water it's about 1500 m/s. It's a pressure wave so the more it has to push against the faster it has to go.
Ken, wasn't he still spinning when he actually broke the sound barrier? It was only when he hit denser air that he was able to stabilise himself and adopt a head-down position but his speed of descent would have slowed considerably by then. I stand to be corrected though
To be honest mate I was watching it live on broadband which is so crap at the moment I was getting about 3 seconds of footage and about 15 seconds of buffering so what I saw was disjointed to says the least. The infra red was showing him definitely spread eagled and spinning well before his drogue deployed. It's a bit of unknown territory really in denser air at transonic speed his spin roll rate would be a lot less but the shear force would be lethal. At higher altitudes, with less dense air his roll rate could easily accelerate to the point where the G would kill him. It's way more your subject than mine Johhny. Catch me jumping out of a perfectly serviceable aircraft?.........yeah, right.
Did you watch the press conference after.it was on live and he said he started to spin , Put his hand out and it got worse so tried the other hand and It started to level off. He said the problem was he couldn't feel the wind because of the pressure suit so That's why it got so bad.he said he didn't know if he broke the barrier while in the tumble Or when he leveled off as there was so little resistance even after levelling off.
I gave up after he touched down. Playing Statues with the laptop for nearly three hours had done my head in.
Lmao......Joe kitenger ended it perfectly.they told him they had a few mins of Web broadcast left so was there anything he wanted to add. He said to all the people that said we couldnt do it I would Like now time give them the one finger salute .....legend
Wish I'd seen that, interesting! Apparently BBC are doing a programme on it which will be shown in about 4 weeks time, that should enlighten us hopefully. Whole new ball game at that altitude and velocity, I'm still buzzing from just watching it, gawd knows how he's feeling.
yeah, what next for felix, rocket pack at 120,000ft to see how far he can cover.....further than the channel thats for sure lol. I want to go do an extreme sport now after watching all that.
Try this footage. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/video/2012/oct/15/felix-baumgartner-skydive-lego-video?newsfeed=true
Just seen that it was 65 years to the day that Yeager was, supposedly, the first man to ever break the sound barrier.
