So anyway, a 63-year old man is planning to break the sound barrier by jumping out of a plane from an altitude of 25 miles

Man plans record skydive from edge of space
Last Updated: 2:37am BST 14/08/2007

A retired French army colonel is aiming to take a stratospheric leap into the record books by completing a 1000mph skydive from the edge of space.

Aiming to become the first human being to break the sound barrier in free-fall, Michel Fournier will ascend to an altitude of 25 miles in a helium-filled weather balloon before plunging to earth at supersonic speed.

After years of training, millions of pounds of funding and numerous thwarted attempts, the daredevil Frenchman is expected to make the jump over the Saskatchewan plains in Canada next month.

advertisementIn the process of le Grand Saut or "Super Jump", the 63-year-old hopes to complete a lofty hat-trick - breaking records for the highest ever parachute jump, the longest sky dive, and the highest altitude achieved by a person in a balloon.

Mr Fournier will be dressed in a £35,000 carbon fibre suit designed to protect him from freezing temperatures of -100C, as well as from extremely high temperatures caused by the air resistance created by his high-speed fall.

A re-enforced crash helmet will protect his ears from the thunderous sonic boom he will create as he breaks the sound barrier.

He will also have to spend hours before his leap inhaling pure oxygen to dispel any traces of nitrogen from his blood due to the thinness of the air at 40,000m.

Over the past two decades Mr Fournier has sold antique furniture, a prized gun collection and even his home to press ahead with his dream of completing the record-breaking dive.

He came closest in 2003, when his attempt was thwarted as his balloon burst shortly before lift-off.

"People have said I am too old, but I am very fit and have trained hard," said the veteran of more than 8,500 parachute jumps who has followed a rigorous training regime including running, lifting weights, and yoga.

"I would be lying if I said I wasn't afraid, but I am also very excited. It really is a leap into the unknown."

I always thought there was a speed you couldnt exceed while falling, but i guess this proves my unsubstantiated belief wrong.

ooh there's a big piece on this man in the new yorker -- he calls it "getting back from space on foot" which is funny i think

(i didn't read it all yet)

jibe the speed limit is caused by ordinary friction, isn't it, so if you are travelling through the upper atmosphere where there's less air, the friction effect will be less? (that's a guess)

He will also have to spend hours before his leap inhaling pure oxygen to dispel any traces of nitrogen from his blood due to the thinness of the air at 40,000m.

does this mean he could get teh bends?

It would be quite funny if he accidentally went a teeny bit too high and floated off into space instead of falling.

fuck that'd be awesome. i have to say sheepishly that i had no idea you could go up 25 miles and *not* be in space.

http://www.kirchersociety.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/04/ballon1b.jpg

"teeny bit too high" = out beyond earth's gravitational pull? planes can't get that far

the atmosphere doesn't just stop suddenly, it just carries on getting thinner doesn't it? = he is in space

i think they're developing planes that fly through this 'subspace' zone well fast. the zone that causes all the flames and whatnot when space vehicles are coming down, that must have some basically measurable 'depth', but i would imagine doesn't have a definite start and end point. i guess this dude is below that zone?

wiki: "There is no definite boundary between the atmosphere and outer space. It slowly becomes thinner and fades into space. Three quarters of the atmosphere's mass is within 11 km of the planetary surface. In the United States, people who travel above an altitude of 80.5 km (50 statute miles) are designated astronauts. An altitude of 120 km (400,000 ft) marks the boundary where atmospheric effects become noticeable during re-entry. The Kármán line, at 100 km (328,000 ft), is also frequently regarded as the boundary between atmosphere and outer space."

he will be in the lobby of space

OK, I'm still trying to get my head around the idea of him making his own personal sonic boom. I know he's wearing a helmet, but that would shatter his eardrums, no?

And also, when they were creating supersonic transport, didn't they have all kinds of problems with the plane shaking and shuddering and breaking apart as it neared the speed of sound? Surely the human body is a lot more fragile than a jet?

I'm going to go and listen to the Byrds again. "25 Miles High... and when you touch down..."

in a way this kind of malarkey shows up the arbitrariness of our laws relating to 'sectioning'.

Dude is French and making the jump in (above?) Canada though.

Perhaps he'll burn up as he gets further into the atmosphere?

And then they'll call him... FRENCH FRY!

(OK, I'm out.)

His harness is going to give him one hell of a wedgie when his parachute opens.

has this dude been tested for senility or severe depression?

Jumping out of spaceships? I think mania might be more of the case than depression. I CAN FLY, MAN!!! RAELLY!!!! WATCH ME!!!! MAIS OUI!!!!

i am always surprised by the drive and courage of these explorer types. in 1492 i would never have sailed the ocean blue.

So maybe he'll bump into some other islands on the way?

I heard on the radio yesterday that he's postponing until 2008.

'ang on, who was the dude who did the high atmos jump thats in that Boards of Canada video? was that not as high or something?

it's this guy i think

he holds the extant record anyway

'ang on, who was the dude who did the high atmos jump thats in that Boards of Canada video? was that not as high or something?

DAMMIT i was going to mention BoC. i've been watching that one on repeat the past coupla days. doesn't get any worse. 108,000 feet in his case btw.

On 16 August 1960, US Air Force Captain Joseph Kittinger entered the record books when he stepped from the gondola of a helium balloon floating at an altitude of 31,330 m (102,800 feet) and took the longest skydive in history. As of the writing of this supplement 39 years later, his record remains unbroken.

The air is so thin at this altitude that it would make for a moderate laboratory vacuum on the surface of the earth. With little atmosphere, the sky is essentially black and the sun's radiation is unusually intense despite polar temperatures.

Sitting in my gondola, which gently twisted with the balloon's slow turnings, I had begun to sweat lightly, though the temperature read 36 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. Sunlight burned in on me under the edge of an aluminized antiglare curtain and through the gondola's open door.

The density of air at 30 km is roughly 1.5 % that at sea level and thus drag is essentially negligible.

No wind whistles or billows my clothing. I have absolutely no sensation of the increasing speed with which I fall. [The clouds] rushed up so chillingly that I had to remind myself they were vapor and not solid.

People are crazy.

Um, paras 3 and 5 are intended to be indented quotes there.

You can't float off into space accidentally on a helium balloon - helium floats because it's lighter than air, but helium is heavier than no air!

The maximum speed (terminal velocity innit) is indeed caused by friction, and is dependent on your shape and yeah i guess how much air there is around!

i was thinking about the sonic boom thing, how much sound exactly does a person falling make? i guess it all adds up when you're travelling at speed of sound (cos the sound you make travels along with you at the same speed and gets added to any new sounds that you make) haha, wouldn't it be great if as he reaches speed of sound to go "O RLY" and have that booming through the sky?

There was a good article on this in last week's New Yorker.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/13/070813fa_fact_bilger

ken i don't think the sonic boom comes from whatever ambient noise you happen to be making...

this is really awesome. I want video.

Kittinger jump:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBBuyypGDNo

I really don't understand how someone has the balls to just step off their balloon at 100k feet.