Flew faster than sound and did not die

The speed of the first steam locomotives was artificially limited: at that time it was believed that the human body could not withstand such a speed. Austrian Felix Baumgartner proved himself that he is capable of enduring even more. Yesterday, October 14, he became the first person who managed to overcome the speed of sound in free fall and land safely on the ground.

Baumgartner is generally a modern person. He makes his living by performing spectacular jumps from the sky - base jumping and skydiving. He has many records and jumps from the most famous buildings in the world, but the current test is incredible even for him.

The feat was sponsored by the Red Bull brand. The record was preceded by extremely careful preparation, during which Baumgartner made several jumps from lower heights. A special, almost unrestrictive spacesuit with a transparent pressure helmet, oxygen supply systems, temperature and pressure maintenance systems was developed - without them, the daredevil would die in the stratosphere in a few minutes. A pair of HD cameras were placed on his hips.

In about an hour, Baumgartner ascended in a balloon to the height of the stratosphere, where the pressure is several percent of normal. Then the Austrian opened the hatch of a special capsule and sat down on the edge. “I would like you to see what I see now,” he said into the microphone, got ready and stepped into the abyss.

The previous record had stood since 1960 and was set as part of military tests, when Joseph Kittinger parachuted from a height of 31.3 km, reaching 988 km/h (this is 274 m/s and noticeably slower than the speed of sound in air, 340 m/s). With). Since then they have tried to beat him more than a dozen times. There were no casualties: at such a height and at such speeds, any little thing can become deadly.

Fortunately, both Baumgartner and the suit worked flawlessly yesterday, although both had a hard time during the flight. “At some point it seemed that I was losing consciousness,” said the daredevil, who had to make every effort to stabilize the rotation. Already at the very ground, after 4 minutes and 19 seconds of free fall, he opened his parachute and landed safely. The figures are officially recognized and announced: the maximum speed of free fall from a height of 39 km was 1342 km/h (this is 373 m/s - 1.24 times the speed of sound).

However, even Baumgartner’s impressive record is unlikely to last forever. It is conventionally believed that the atmosphere ends at an altitude of 100 km. Future heroes have something to jump from.