On August 16, 1960, Joseph Kittinger jumped his last all Excelsior jump, doing so from an air-thin height of 102,800 feet (31,334 meters). From that nearly 20 miles altitude, his tumble toward terra firma took some 4 minutes and 36 seconds. Exceeding the speed of sound during the fall, Kittinger used a small stabilizing chute before a larger, main parachute opened in the denser atmosphere. He safely touched down in barren New Mexico desert, 13 minutes 45 seconds after he vaulted into the void.
The jump set records that still stand today, among them, the highest parachute jump, the longest freefall, and the fastest speed ever attained by a human through the atmosphere. Somewhat in contention is Kittinger’s use of the small parachute for stabilization during his record-setting fall. Roger Eugene Andreyev, a Russian, is touted as holding the world’s free fall record of 80,325 feet (24,483 meters), made on November 1, 1962.
Head-Down Skydiving With A Tennis Ball
This video has some really cool footage of a group of guys freeflying head-down with a tennis ball. The jump out together and then release the ball to watch it hover around them. Pretty cool stuff. In the beginning of the video there is also some canopy relative work. Video was taken at the 2003 [...]
Skydiving With A Raft
Awesome video of a group of folks skydiving with an inflatable raft. There’s a team surrounding the raft to stabilize it and a couple of jumpers riding in the raft… and of course the camera-man. The jump was done February 26, 2006 over Gainesville, Florida and features the following jumpers: Kim, Melissa, Jeff, Billy, Andrew, [...]



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