The medical director for daredevil Felix Baumgartner’s attempt at breaking the world record for highest skydive admits that when he encounters the shockwaves that will occur when he breaks the speed of sound, it’s unclear what will happen since it is a groundbreaking feat. “Until you do it, it’s still an unknown,” medical director Jonathan Clark said. A very special capsule has been created specifically for the event.

The man who will inhabit it is named Felix Baumgartner, and he’ll be breaking the world record that was set by one Joe Kittinger all the way back in 1960. Yes, in more than 50 years no one has been able to (or been courageous enough) to free-fall from higher than 102,800 feet. Baumgartner, though, will shatter it if all goes according to plan.

He’ll go all the way up 120,000 feet into the sky, a task that will take nearly three hours to complete. He, along with his capsule, will then dive quickly back to the Earth’s surface. The capsule is, of course, equipped with a parachute. Not only will Baumgartner set a new free-fall record, he’ll also be the first human to break to speed of sound during free-fall. The jump will happen later this year above New Mexico.

philperth2010 wrote on Jun 6^th, 2012 at 7:18pm:



Cos it's there to be done.  It is pretty awesome, I just thought that once you reach terminal velocity, you can't go any faster no matter how high you go up, so I don't see how he can break the sound barrier during freefall.