Nick Piantanida
Nicholas Piantanida (August 15, 1932 - August 29, 1966) was an American amateur parachute jumper who reached 123,500 feet (37642 meters, 23.39 miles)[1][2][3][4] with his Strato Jump II balloon on February 6, 1966, flying a manned balloon higher than anyone before or since. He had planned to parachute from the balloon to set a world record for the highest parachute jump, but was unable to disconnect himself from his oxygen line. He was forced to abort the jump and detach the gondola from the balloon, returning to earth in the gondola without the balloon. Because he did not return to earth with his balloon, his unprecedented altitude is not recognized by the Fédération_Aéronautique_Internationale as a balloon altitude world record, and because he did not jump from the balloon's gondola at 123,500 feet, he earned no parachute altitude record either.
He died after his third attempt to set a record for high-altitude parachute jumping. On May 5, 1966,[5] during his ascent for a planned super-sonic free fall from over 120,000 feet, Piantanida's face mask depressurized at about the 57,000 feet mark.[6] The lack of oxygen left him brain damaged and in a coma from which he never recovered. Piantanida died four months after the jump at the age of 34.[7]
References
- ^ Ryan, Craig (2003). The Pre-Astronauts: Manned Ballooning on the Threshold of Space. Naval Institute Press. pp. 258–269. ISBN 978-1591147480.
- ^ Ryan, Craig (2003). Magnificent Failure: Free Fall from the Edge of Space. Smithsonian Books. ISBN 978-1588341419.
- ^ Betancourt, Mark (2012). Air & Space Magazine http://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today/Bullet-Man.html?c=y&page=1.
{{cite journal}}: Missing or empty|title=(help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ "Chutist Changes Mind 123,500 Feet in Sky". New York Times. 2 February 1966. Retrieved 13 October 2012.
- ^ "Smithsonian Books". Smithsonian Books. Retrieved 2010-04-14.
- ^ "Magnificent Failure: Free Fall From the Edge of Space". Smithsonian Books. Retrieved 2010-07-20.
- ^ Dive Hard, The Globe and Mail, May 25, 2008
External links
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