From Great Heights

While I was in the library this week I looked at a column in Cabinet Magazine that outlined a minor history of falling from great heights. It listed a number of people throughout history who have fallen from great heights either intentionally or accidentally. Vesna Vulovic, a Serbian flight attendant, fell from 33,333 feet when her plane was bombed and she survived. Stephen Peer, a tightrope walker, fell while crossing Niagara Falls at midnight. Although there are theories that he was shot by a rival funambulist. Just last year, Father Adelir Antonio di Carli, a Roman Catholic priest from Brazil, took off with 1,000 helium balloons. He floated out to sea and was never seen again. I am really intrigued by these stories, but the one that really blows my mind is Project Excelsior.


On August 16, 1960 Captain Joe Kittenger of the United States Air Force ascended into the stratosphere in a gondola carried by 200ft tall a helium balloon. After 1 hour and 31 minutes Kittenger reached an peak altitude of 102,800 ft. He waited 12 minutes for his balloon to drift over the target landing area and then stepped out of the gondola and began his descent. He fell for 4 minutes and 36 seconds before deploying his parachute and it took him a total of 13 minutes and 45 seconds to finally touch down safely in the New Mexico desert. While falling he reached a top speed of 614 miles while is nine-tenths the speed of sound.

Learning about this completely left me awestruck. I cannot even begin to imagine what that experience must have been like or how he could have taken that step off into space. I am completely enamored with the whole story. What would it have been like to free fall for so long from such a height without even being able to see the ground when you began your descent. To even be able to see the Earth from so far away must have been incredible.

On this jump Kittinger set world records for highest parachute jump, longest parachute free fall and fastest free fall, all of which have yet to be broken.

There was a plaque on the front of the gondola that read "This Is The Highest Step In The World"

Kittinger recovering after the fall