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Felix Baumgartner

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Felix Baumgartner
Nickname(s)B.A.S.E. 502
Born (1969-04-20) April 20, 1969 (age 55)
Salzburg, Austria

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.

Biography

He was born on 20 April 1969 in Salzburg, Austria.[1]

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.[2]

On 31 July 2003, Baumgartner became the first person to cross the English Channel in freefall using a specially made fibre wing.[3]

Baumgartner set the world record for the lowest BASE jump ever, from the hand of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.[4]

He became the first person to BASE jump from the completed Millau Viaduct in France on 27 June 2004[citation needed] and the first person to sky dive onto, then BASE jump from, the Turning Torso building in Malmö, Sweden on 18 August 2006.[5]

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.[6]

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.[7] 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.[8][9][10] Joseph Kittinger, 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.[7][11] 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.[12][13] The lawsuit was resolved out of court in June 2011[14] and on 5 February 2012, The Daily Telegraph reported that the project would be resumed.[15]

On 15 March 2012 he completed the first of two test jumps from 71,581 feet (21.818 km). 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).[16]

See also

  • Michel Fournier, who has been working on a 25 mile jump for several years.[17]
  • Joseph Kittinger, world record holder for skydiving from 102,800 ft
  • Yves Rossy, the first man to cross the English Channel using a jet-powered wing

References

  1. ^ "Felix Baumgartner". redbull.co.uk. Retrieved 23 Mar 2012.
  2. ^ "Archive: 1999". felixbaumgartner.com. Retrieved 23 Mar 2012.
  3. ^ "Birdman Flies Atair Parachutes Across English Channel". Atairaerospace.com. 2003-11-21. Retrieved 2010-05-18.
  4. ^ The Man Who Would Fall to Earth, Esquire, p. 4, 2010-07-14, accessed 2010-07-14; "he leapt from the outstretched hand of O Cristo Redentor, the ninety-eight-foot-tall statue that looms over Rio de Janeiro. ...the final product was ... a world record — lowest BASE jump ever".
  5. ^ "Pr-jippo kan sluta med åtal". 2006-08-18. Retrieved 5 December 2010. Template:Sv icon
  6. ^ "Extreme Felix Baumgartner jumping off Taipei 101". YouTube. Retrieved 2010-05-18.
  7. ^ a b Charles Q Choi (22 January 2010). "'Space diver' to attempt first supersonic freefall". New Scientist. Retrieved 2010-01-29.
  8. ^ "Man to Break Sound Barrier Jumping from Edge of Space". Gizmodo.com. Retrieved 2010-05-18.
  9. ^ Tony Paterson (25 January 2010). "Faster than the speed of sound: the man who falls to earth". London: The Independent. Retrieved 2010-01-29.
  10. ^ Quain, John R. (11 April 2010). "Daredevil to Plunge From Outer Space in Supersonic Suit". FOXNews.com. Retrieved 2010-05-18.
  11. ^ John Tierney (March 15, 2010). "A Supersonic Jump, From 23 Miles in the Air". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-03-17. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  12. ^ Pasztor, Andy (12 October 2010). "Lawsuit Grounds Red Bull". The Wall Street Journal.
  13. ^ "Statement regarding Red Bull Stratos". Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  14. ^ "Official statement on closing of legal case". Red Bull Stratos press release. 30 June 2011.
  15. ^ "Sky diver to break sound barrier with jump from edge of space". The Daily Telegraph. 05 Feb 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ Dunn, Marcia (March 15, 2012). "Skydiver jumps 13.6 miles on path to world's highest jump". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved March 15, 2012.
  17. ^ Dermot McGrath. "The Man Who Will Fall to Earth". Wired.com. Retrieved 2010-05-18.
image icon Felix Baumgartner

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