Record skydiving height. The longest skydive ever

There will always be daredevils who are attracted by mortal danger. Simple parachute jumps are not enough for them, give them such extreme sports that the blood in their veins turns cold. What makes these madmen do unthinkable things? Thirst for fame, money, national recognition? In this article, we will talk about the highest skydiving from the stratosphere?

World record to date

In 2014, Alan Eustace, Vice President of Google set a new world record. He jumped with a parachute from a height of 41 km. During the time of free fall, which took 5 minutes on the strength, he developed a speed of 1322.88 km per hour, which is more than the speed of sound.

The rise to such a height was made thanks to a balloon filled with 1000 m 3 helium. The journey to the stratosphere takes 4 hours, and the descent takes 15 minutes. The entire experiment was kept secret until Alan's landing. Today it is the highest parachute jump in the world.

Eustace's first words on earth were, "It's been a wild, wild ride." Later, he recalls that the worst thing was to climb. He held on to the module, pulling his legs up to keep his balance. At the time of the fall, he made two complete revolutions around his head, after which he opened a parachute, which stabilized his position in the air.

Felix Baumgartner jump

But the highest parachute jump in the world, made two years earlier, made a national sensation. Australian extreme jumper jumped from a height of 39 km. The uniqueness of this act was that it could be observed in real time. At that moment, 10 million viewers gathered at the TV screens.

It took months to prepare. On day-X, a huge helium balloon lifted the capsule in which Felix sat to a height of 39 km. It was originally planned that the jump would be made from a height of 31 km, but the extreme athlete managed to stop the climb only after 8 km.

free flight

Seeing the Earth from space is a real miracle, accessible to the elite. And when the Earth is in your palm, and you are without a spaceship, it is simply impossible to imagine, let alone describe in words. To take a step towards the unknown and plunge into the abyss is an act of the most courageous people.

Free fall during the highest parachute jump was 4 minutes 20 seconds. During this time, the irreparable could happen: Felix went into a terrible tailspin, he was spinning at breakneck speed to such an extent that he almost lost consciousness. For that fraction of a minute, he lost contact with Earth.

The parachute flight lasted 10 minutes. The total descent time was about 15 minutes. The most interesting thing is that the viewers were shown a video broadcast with a delay of 20 minutes. This was done so that in the event of an accident, people would not see the bloody footage.

Other flights

All high-altitude flights before that date back to the middle of the 20th century. All subsequent attempts until 2012 ended in failure.

The very first high-altitude flight can be considered the experiment of the crew of the USSR-1-bis stratospheric balloon, which took place in 1935. Zille K. Ya., Prilutsky Yu. G., Verigo A. B. collected scientific data. When they had already begun to descend, it turned out that the shell was damaged and they would not sit down together. Then Prilutsky and Verigo jumped off with a parachute on the border of the troposphere and landed safely. And Zilla managed to land the aircraft.

In September 1945 another Soviet athlete made the highest parachute jump in the world at that time. It was Vasily Romanyuk. He climbed into the stratosphere to a height of 13,108.5 m and jumped. He was in free fall for almost three minutes. Romanyuk managed to open a rescue parachute at an altitude of 1,000 m. At that time it was unique case, who broke all high-altitude records. It turns out that an ordinary guy, born on an average Ukrainian collective farm, has broken 18 records in his life. In 1957, he took to the skies again, this time at around 13,400 m. After stepping down, he immediately opened his parachute, but the altitude record was set.

This man became an outstanding personality, and did a lot to make Felix Baumgartner's experiment take place 50 years after his own jump. In 1959, the Excelsior project was launched. The plans were to make the three highest parachute jumps. The first - in November 1959. Then an altitude of 23,300 m was noted. There were problems, and the stabilizing parachute did not open. Kittinger went into a tailspin and lost consciousness. Saved by his main parachute, which opened automatically.

A month later, Joseph tried again, which this time was successful. For a jump from a height of 22,760 m, he was awarded the Leo Stevens Parachute Medal. A year later, the final experiment took place within the framework of the project. In the middle of the 20th century, Kittinger became the first person in the world to ascend into the stratosphere without a spacecraft. His limit was 31,300 meters.

The jump got harder. Already in the sky, Joseph discovered a microcrack in his glove, but did not report it to Earth. Having jumped from a space height, he reached a speed of 998 km / h before he opened his parachute. He did it in advance, at an altitude of 5,500 m, thus not breaking the record for the duration of a free fall. On the ground, it turned out that his hand was badly injured, but Joseph managed to break several records.

Evgeny Andreev

On November 1, 1962, two people planned to make the highest jump: Evgeny Andreev and Pyotr Dolgov. They climbed to a height of 25,500 meters and took a step Evgeny Andreev flew 25,000 meters in free fall, and only at a distance of 500 meters from the surface did he open his parachute. This case became the longest jump in the world. The athlete miraculously managed to survive.

The fate of his partner was tragic. His suit depressurized during the jump. He died before reaching Earth.

Future plans

The most ambitious plan can be considered the dream of the French athlete Michel Fournier, who wanted to make the highest jump from a height of 40 thousand meters. The first attempt was already made, but while Michel was preparing for the launch, his balloon flew away without him. According to rumors, Fournier is not ready to give up and will try again.

Maybe it was a sign? No one knows what will happen if a person can so much exceed supersonic speed. And if it is torn apart right in the sky? These questions were repeatedly asked by scientists and skydivers. But, nevertheless, courage and courage each time make them rise into the sky again and again.

American aviation in the 50s of the last century was on the rise. However, the government began to worry about the pilots themselves - what would happen if the pilot had to eject at a great height? As a result, the only right decision was made - the development of a special parachute that could deliver people from a height of 25-30 kilometers. It was decided to name the project "Project Excelsior".

Tests on dummies

Initially, the tests were carried out on mannequins. The designers created a large balloon that was filled with helium. A kind of frame was attached around it, to which mannequins were fastened. As soon as a certain height was reached, the mannequins would automatically unfasten themselves and fly down towards the Earth.

Alas, the dolls instantly went into a tailspin and experienced such overloads that, if they were alive, they would die on approaching the surface of the planet. Then an additional parachute was invented for them, which, as it were, complemented the main one - it had a stabilizing and braking effect.

Parachutist Joseph Kittinger

Then tests began to be carried out on humans. Experienced skydiver Joseph Kittinger got into the basket of the balloon. For the sake of the jump, he had to put on a pressure suit, because at an altitude of several tens of kilometers it is incredibly cold - up to -70 degrees and even lower!

In total, Joseph made three jumps.

The first of these happened on November 16, 1959. The parachutist had to leave the basket at an altitude of 18.3 kilometers, but technical problems began during the ascent, and as a result, the jump took place at an altitude of 23.1 kilometers. Moreover, Joseph's helmet was fogged up, so he could hardly see anything. He then lost consciousness and his main parachute did not fully open. He was lucky - a little later, the reserve parachute automatically opened, as a result of which Kittinger landed safely, although he was still unconscious.

The second jump was much more successful. At an altitude of 22.7, Joseph left the basket and calmly flew to the ground in just over 12 minutes.

The third jump took place almost a year later - on August 16, 1960. This time, the height to which he climbed was almost 40 kilometers! The pressure there is so high that one of Joseph's gloves inflated and burst. Soon his hand was taken away. However, he did not report this to the center and left the basket. He flew down for 14 minutes at a speed of 998 kilometers per hour! It was this jump that until 2012 was considered the longest in the world.

Skydiver Felix Baumgartner

On October 14, 2012 skydiver Felix Baumgartner from Australia set a new world record. He made a jump from the stratosphere from a height of 39 kilometers and landed safely in the vicinity of the city of Roswell in the US state of New Mexico. During the jump, several more records were broken. Firstly, this is the height of the parachute jump itself. Secondly, the highest manned flight in the stratosphere. Thirdly, the free fall length was 36,402.6 meters. Fourth, the free fall speed was 1357.6 km/h (it is worth noting that the supersonic speed is 1137.6 km/h), which is this moment the highest.

From what height do skydivers jump? Beginners - from about 1 km, experienced - from 4 km. But to the question of whether a person can jump with a parachute from space, the answer is likely to be negative. And in vain! Back in the early 60s of the last century, Soviet paratroopers proved that such jumps were possible by descending from a height of more than 25 km.

Step into the sky

Why do ordinary skydivers jump from a height of 4,200 m? Everything is simple. Above this height, a person experiences oxygen starvation. The flow of oncoming air and serious overloads will create no less of a problem. However, you can use a protective suit or spacesuit. In this case, theoretically, the maximum height from which a person could jump with a parachute is 320,000 m! But it is at this altitude that the Moon's gravity will be equal to the Earth's gravity, and therefore a fall from this point will take a skydiver at least 2,400 years! Moreover, a person who dared to jump with a parachute from space will enter the Earth's atmosphere at a speed of 11,100 m/s. It is difficult even to imagine the temperature to which his protective suit will warm up.

However, at the dawn of the space age, skydiving from space was seriously considered on both sides of the ocean. Specialists developed the appropriate technologies, and paratrooper heroes tested them on themselves.

The first jump from the stratosphere with a parachute in 1962 was made in the Soviet Union. It is rather strange that this unique experiment is hardly remembered today, despite the fact that it was widely known in the 1960s. Then on the agenda was the issue of the safe return of cosmonauts from space and the testing of emergency escape from aircraft by pilots.

The fact is that Sergei Korolev, who led the Soviet space program, was very worried about the last stage of the flight - the landing of the descent vehicle. It turns out that the soft landing system on the first ships of the Vostok series was imperfect, and the astronauts spent a lot of time working out various landing options. At the same time, no one could guarantee a 100% successful landing. The Americans had a similar problem with the Apollo spacecraft.

The decision came by itself: to conduct experiments with the landing of astronauts using parachutes. The Americans conducted their experiments on mannequins, fearing for the lives of paratroopers. And in practice, having made sure what inhuman overloads a parachutist would have to experience, experiments with people in the USA were abandoned.

Volga in orbit

Soviet scientists, in turn, rightly decided that domestic technologies were superior to American ones, and decided to conduct an experiment on a parachute jump from the stratosphere with the participation of test paratroopers.

The study was scheduled for the fall of 1962, just a year and a half after Yuri Gagarin's triumphant flight. The operation was given the secret name "Star".

It was assumed that two testers would rise on a stratospheric balloon to a height of about 25 km and then, leaving the gondola cabin, would make a parachute jump, simulating an emergency escape from the spacecraft. Even the cabin of the gondola was an exact copy of the capsule in which Yuri Gagarin ascended into space.

Major Yevgeny Andreev and Colonel Pyotr Dolgov, a tester of parachute systems since the late 1940s, were chosen as paratroopers. By the beginning of the experiment, Dolgov had more than 1,000 parachute jumps and eight world records behind him. Moreover, the colonel himself was a designer of pilot rescue systems.

During the study, Petr Dolgov was dressed in a specially designed spacesuit with a transparent pressure helmet, and Andreev had to jump in a conventional high-altitude aviation suit. A test site near the city of Volsk in the Saratov region was chosen as a site for an unusual experiment.

And finally, on November 1, 1962, at 7:44 Moscow time, the 100-meter Volga stratospheric balloon began to rise into the sky. The newspapers of those years enthusiastically wrote how the Volga, which was 72,900 m3 in volume, swaying, got off the ground. For a long time it was possible to see the giant letters of the USSR, decorating its surface.

Experiment

The use of a stratostat as a means of delivering paratroopers to the jump site was not accidental. After all, the planes of those years did not rise above 26,000 m, and it was not possible to jump from them at high speed. Another thing is the ascent in a hot air balloon. The world record at that time belonged to two Americans - Victor Prater and Malcolm Ross, who climbed a year before the events described to a height of 34,668 m! However, they did not jump.

After 2 hours and 20 minutes, it became known that the stratospheric balloon had reached its maximum height of 25,458 m, and a command was received from the ground to prepare for the jump. Andreev was the first to leave the gondola with the help of a lock well equipped with a catapult. What the skydiver had to endure during the free fall before the opening of the canopy is difficult to describe in words. Evgeny Andreev was falling at a speed of 900 km / h, feeling gigantic overloads. At the same time, the descent to the ground took him only a little more than five minutes. The parachute opened at the planned height, and the landing took place in the normal mode. The only thing in order not to swim in the icy water, Andreev, planning, changed the place of landing, otherwise everything went well.

But his partner, unfortunately, suffered misfortune. Pyotr Dolgov left the stratostat second already at an altitude of 28,640 m. No one knows for sure what happened in the gondola, but the commission investigating the incident concluded that the parachutist accidentally hit his helmet on a ledge near the hatch. Due to the impact, a microcrack of no more than 9 mm formed on the helmet, but it was she who killed the famous paratrooper: the helmet depressurized, and Dolgov suffocated. The parachute, as expected, opened in time, but the already dead body of Pyotr Dolgov fell to the ground.

For the accomplished feat, both testers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In the name of P. I. Dolgov in 1964, one of the streets in Moscow in the Tushino area was named.

Half a century in record holders

Exactly 50 years, no one could at least repeat the feat of Soviet paratroopers. There were attempts, but they all remained only projections or ended in the death of people. Only in October 2012, half a century after the heroic jump of Soviet officers, the Austrian Felix Baumgartner made a jump from 39,450 m!

The speed of free fall in this case was 1342.8 km / h, that is, the 43-year-old Austrian exceeded the speed of sound. The most surprising thing is that the skydiver planned to jump from a height of 36 km. However, the balloon rose so rapidly that it was possible to slow it down for a jump only at a record height of 39 km.

Unlike Yevgeny Andreev, the Austrian was in the air for only four minutes. Moreover, the landing was so smooth that Baumpartner, to the applause of the escort group, himself freed himself from the parachute lines and lightly walked towards the helicopter that was waiting for him.

I must say that if the first jumps from the stratosphere in the 1960s were held under the patronage of the state, then the Austrian's record was largely due to his personal perseverance on the way to the goal.

More than 2,000 times Baumgartner has skydived from skyscrapers. Then there was a jump from a height of 29 km. And, finally, having risen into the air on a ball 168 m high, he made the main jump of his life. At the same time, it should be noted that the pleasure was not cheap. The organization of the jump, the production of a balloon and a unique spacesuit took about 50 million US dollars.

Dmitry Sokolov

There are many desperate people on our planet who surprise with their actions and risky undertakings. One of these pioneers is Felix Baumgartner, a 45-year-old resident of Austria. The man is fond of parachuting, and simply loves heights, and the Red Bull Stratos project became a manifestation of this.

In 2012, a young man, with the support of a well-known brand, set a series of records, including the highest parachute jump in a capsule. To rise to a great height, a special design was used: a capsule, which was fastened to a helium balloon. The weight of such an installation was 1.4 tons, and the volume of gas reached 850 thousand cubic meters.

Such a structure was able to send Felix to a height of 39 kilometers. Such an ascent lasted 2.5 hours, but this was not the final stage. The man jumped out of the capsule and covered 36.5 kilometers in free fall mode. The parachute opened, the landing was successful, which made it possible to set several serious records:

1. Rise in the capsule to the highest height;

2. Jump from the greatest height;

3. The greatest falling speed.

In general, there is something to be satisfied with. Note that the risks of performing the trick were very significant. The video of the jump can be seen on youtube, because it was recorded online with a short delay, which is associated with the moral side in case of failure. During the jump, there was a moment when Baumgartner lost control, he began to spin, which could lead to tragic events.

As for the highest falling speed, it was about 1342 kilometers per hour. The information was rechecked by the International Federation of Aviation Workers, where it received confirmation of the presented record. It is worth noting that the record holder from Austria could set another record, which is associated with the duration of free fall, he lacked only ten seconds to overcome the record of the Soviet parachutist Evgeny Andreev.

Apparently Felix was not able to estimate the correct distance to the ground, so he played it safe. Recall that the jump was carried out in a special spacesuit, in which the glass fogged up. Concerning national heroes, back in 1962, Petr Dolgov and Evgeny Andreev performed a similar jump from a height of 25.5 kilometers. The latter was in free fall mode for 4.5 minutes. As for the second member of the crew, due to the depressurization of the suit, he died.

There is another case that is associated with the name of Joseph Kittinger, who climbed to a height of 31.3 kilometers. He made the jump, but controlled his fall with a small stabilization parachute. During such a jump, an imaginary free fall was performed, which lasted 4:36 seconds. This record has not been recognized.

Actually, interest in the topic of parachute jumps from the stratosphere was “warmed up” by Felix Baumgartner, who is going to jump from a height of 36 kilometers.

On Tuesday, October 9, Baumgartner had to postpone the jump, despite the fact that he had already taken his place in the gondola of the stratospheric balloon. This decision was influenced by an unexpected gust of wind, reaching a speed of 40 km / h, which twisted the fragile shell of the stratospheric balloon and pressed it to the ground.

As it became known Felix Baumgartner made his highest jump from the stratosphere. During his flight, which lasted 4 minutes and 20 seconds, Felix broke the speed of sound.

F. Baumgartner said that during the jump he began to rotate, which could be dangerous for him, however, he managed to stabilize the position of his body. “The jump turned out to be more difficult than I thought,” he noted after landing.

F. Baumgartner also said that he did not feel the passage of the sound barrier, but this was recorded by special equipment and now Felix Baumgartner is the first person in the world, a paratrooper who has overcome the speed of sound. With which I congratulate him.

Video of Baumgartner's jump:

Below is a list of 10 people who have made and only intend to make a parachute jump from the stratosphere.

Felix Baumgartner made a jump from a height of 29,455 meters and landed safely near the city of Roswell in the US state of New Mexico. During free fall, he reached a speed of 862 km per hour. The jump was made in preparation for the world record that Baumgarten, or "Fearless Felix" as he is known in Austria, intends to set. Thus, the Austrian managed to fulfill his long-term plan: to block the achievement of the Soviet paratrooper Yevgeny Andreev, who on November 1, 1962 jumped from a balloon from a height of 25.5 kilometers. In January 2010, it was reported that Baumgartner had signed an agreement with Red Bull and was about to skydive from a height of 120,000 feet (36.6 kilometers) while in a balloon, which, if successful, would make him the first skydiver to break through sound barrier.

On November 1, 1962, he made a parachute jump from the Volga stratospheric balloon from a height of 25,500 meters. He overcame 24,500 meters in free fall from maximum speed 900 kilometers per hour. Thus, he set the current world record for the height of a free fall, credited by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

As part of the Excelsior project, he made three parachute jumps from the stratosphere. The first jump was made from a height of 23,300 meters on November 16, 1959. Due to malfunctions, the stabilizing parachute did not open, and Kittinger fell into a tailspin. His body rotated at a speed of 120 revolutions per minute, the g-forces were about 5g, and Joseph lost consciousness. The parachute was opened using an automatic parachute opening device. On December 11, he jumped again, already from a height of 22,760 meters, for which he was awarded the Leo Stevens Parachute Medal. On August 16, 1960, the last jump took place as part of the Excelsior project from a height of 31,300 meters. Opening the drag parachute for stabilization, Joseph Kittinger fell for 4 minutes and 36 seconds, reaching a speed of 988 km / h (or 274 m / s) before opening the main parachute at an altitude of 5500 meters. The tightness of the right glove was broken, and his hand doubled in size. This jump held several records: the highest stratospheric jump, the highest parachute jump, the longest drag parachute drop, and the fastest drop speed. All these records are registered by the US Air Force, the FAI does not recognize them, due to the use of a stabilizing parachute during the jump.

On November 1, 1962, Dolgov, together with Yevgeny Andreev, made a test jump from the Volga stratospheric balloon from a height of 25,600 m. According to the test program, he jumped in an airtight spacesuit with immediate parachute opening. The descent from this height should have taken 38 minutes. But when leaving the cockpit, the pressure suit depressurized, and although the parachute system worked normally, Colonel Dolgov died while still in the air.

In 1965-1966, American skydiver Nicholas Piantanida made three attempts to break the records set by Andreev and Kittinger by initiating the StratoJump project. On October 22, 1965, the first attempt took place, which lasted about 30 minutes. At an altitude of about 7 km, the balloon was damaged and the pilot escaped by parachute. During the second flight on February 2, 1966, the stratosphere balloon rose to a height of 37,600 m, setting a record that has not been beaten so far. But Piantanida could not disconnect from the oxygen tank installed in the gondola and switch to an autonomous space suit system, so the jump had to be canceled. On command from the ground, the gondola separated from the stratospheric balloon and successfully descended by parachute. On May 1, 1966, the third flight took place, which ended in tragedy - when ascending at an altitude of 17500 m, the pressure suit was depressurized and the paratrooper died.

6 Nikolai Nikitin

The first of the planned series of record jumps was performed by the Honored Master of Sports N. Nikitin. It was August 20, 1957. Leaving the plane at an altitude of 15,383 meters, he flew 14,620 meters in free fall, setting new all-Union and world records for a daily long jump.

On September 25, 1945, he made a long jump from the stratosphere. The athlete left the plane at an altitude of 13108.5 meters, spent 167 seconds in free fall and opened his parachute at an altitude of 1000 meters. All existing achievements were blocked, both in height and in the duration of the fall with an unopened parachute. In 1957, he set a new achievement by jumping from a height of 13,400 meters with the immediate opening of a parachute.

8 Yu. G. Prilutsky, A. B. Verigo

On June 26, 1935, the USSR-1-bis stratospheric balloon was launched with a crew consisting of K. Ya. Zille, Yu. G. Prilutsky, and A. B. Verigo. After the implementation of the scientific program, at the beginning of the descent, it turned out that the cylinder shell was damaged. Some time after entering the troposphere, when it became possible to safely open the hatch, Prilutsky and Verigo jumped out with a parachute. Zilla managed to safely land the lightweight gondola.

9 Gary Powers

American pilot who flew reconnaissance flights for the CIA. On May 1, 1960, a U-2 piloted by Powers at an altitude of 20 km near Sverdlovsk was shot down by surface-to-air missiles from the S-75 air defense system. The first S-75 air defense missile fired hit U-2, tore off the wing of Powers' aircraft, damaged the engine and tail, but the cockpit remained intact. The plane began to randomly fall from a height of over 20 kilometers. The pilot did not panic, waited for a height of 10 thousand meters and got out of the car. Then, at five kilometers, he activated the parachute, and landed safely. In fact, Powers made a parachute jump already in the troposphere, but his fall occurred from the stratosphere, and he left the plane at the edge of the stratosphere.

In Canada, an attempt by the French paratrooper Michel Fournier to make, for the first time in the world, a jump from the stratosphere, from a height of 40 thousand meters, ended in failure. Hot air balloon created Russian specialists, specially designed for Michel Fournier's jump from a height of 40 thousand meters, took off without a sealed passenger capsule at a time when Michel Fournier was going through the last stages of preparation for the jump: he breathed oxygen in the pressure chamber. Although Michel's jump did not take place, it can be attributed to one of the most ambitious in recent history. According to rumors, Michel does not intend to give up, and therefore we wish him good luck.