Felix Baumgartner (born 20 April 1969 in Salzburg, Austria) is an Austrian skydiver and a BASE jumper. He is renowned for the particularly dangerous nature of the stunts he has performed during his career. Baumgartner spent time in the Austrian military where he practiced parachute jumping, including training to land on small target zones.This summer, Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner will attempt to break the world record for the longest jump, plummeting more than 23 miles from the Earth’s stratosphere.
In 1999 he claimed the world record for the highest parachute jump from a building when he jumped from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
On 31 July 2003, Baumgartner became the first person to skydive across the English Channel using a specially made fibre wing.
He set the world record for the lowest BASE jump ever, from the hand of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.
He became the first person to BASE jump from the completed Millau Viaduct in France on 27 June 2004 and the first person to sky dive onto, then BASE jump from, the Turning Torso building in Malmö, Sweden on 18 August 2006.
On 12 December 2007 he became the first person to jump from the 91st floor observation deck, then went to the 90th floor (about 390 m (1,280 ft)) of the then tallest completed building in the world, Taipei 101, Taipei, Taiwan.
Red Bull Stratos
In January 2010, it was reported that Baumgartner was working with a team of scientists and sponsor Red Bull to attempt the highest sky-dive on record.Baumgartner was going to make the 120,000 ft (36,600 m) jump from a capsule suspended from a balloon filled with helium, intending to become the first parachutist to break the sound barrier; the feat was scheduled to take place sometime in 2011.Joseph Kittinger,retired Air Force Col.,who holds the records Baumgartner is attempting to break, was advising Baumgartner during the “Stratos” mission in the hopes of getting scientific data on next-generation full pressure suits.However, on October 12, 2010, Red Bull announced it was placing the project on hold after Daniel Hogan filed a lawsuit in California Superior Court in Los Angeles, California in April, claiming he had originated the idea of the parachute dive from the edge of space in 2004 and that Red Bull had stolen the idea from him.The lawsuit was resolved out of court in June 2011 and on 5 February 2012, The Daily Telegraph reported that the project would be resumed.
On 15 March 2012 he completed the first of two test jumps from 71,581 feet (21,818 m). During the jump he spent approximately three minutes and 43 seconds in free fall, reaching speeds of more than 360 miles per hour (580 km/h), before opening his parachute. In total, the jump lasted approximately eight minutes and eight seconds and Baumgartner became only the third person to safely parachute from a height of over 13.5 miles (21.7 km).
This summer, the Austrian skydiver will attempt to break the world record for the longest jump, plummeting more than 23 miles from the Earth’s stratosphere.
“I’ve done a lot of test jumps, so I’m good,” Baumgartner confidently told Fox News before adding that he would “probably say a little prayer” before making the jump that could literally make his blood boil if something goes wrong.
To prepare for the jump, Baumgartner will breath pure oxygen for nearly an hour to remove nitrogen bubbles from his blood. He will then stay at the peak elevation for three hours, allowing his body to adjust. He will then jump in a pressurized suit that will prevent his blood from boiling at the extremely high elevation.
And if all goes well, Baumgartner will set another world record during his jump, becoming the first human being to break the speed of sound in a free-fall jump.
via/wikipedia
