The footage of Felix Baumgartner's famous jump from the stratosphere went around the world and immediately became a real sensation. However, few people know that even before the extreme Austrian, attempts were made to jump from unimaginable heights.
Even at the beginning of November 1962, Soviet testers E. Andreev and P. Dolgov received an order from the leadership of the Air Force to rise to a height of over 25 kilometers and make a jump from the stratosphere. In this case, the goal was quite specific: to test how parachutes would behave when opened at different heights. If E. Andreev's experience was generally successful, then for P. Dolgov this jump ended tragically: at the time of the jump from the gondola, the helmet was damaged, and the officer simply suffocated due to lack of oxygen. Andreev's performance in terms of speed and height of free fall was considered a record for a long time and was included in the Guinness Book of Records.
Another notable jump from the stratosphere was made in mid-August 1960 by the American D. Kittinger. The figures here were even more impressive: the height of the stratostat exceeded 31,000 meters. However, this jump was not recorded as a record due to the fact that a stabilizing parachute was used during the descent.
Thus, we can conclude that a parachute jump from the stratosphere in itself was not something out of the ordinary, humanity has long mastered all the stages of its implementation. However, this does not detract from the merits of Felix Baumgartner, who on October 14, 2012 showed an outstanding result, breaking several records at once.
Firstly, the jump itself from the stratosphere was carried out from a height of just over 39 kilometers. The record is also the indicator of the rise of the stratospheric balloon, which has never before exceeded the “modest” 35 kilometers. Secondly, for the first time in free fall, a man broke the sound barrier, and the maximum speed reached 1342 kilometers per hour. Finally, thirdly, F. Baumgartner made a real show out of this event, and the number of views of this historical event on the Internet exceeded all conceivable and unimaginable indicators.
Actually, the jump from the stratosphere, carried out on October 14, 2012, was the result of a long and painstaking work that took more than seven years, and several tens of millions of dollars were spent. These funds were spent on the design and creation of a special capsule for the stratospheric balloon, as well as on tailoring a special suit. In addition, F. Baumgartner made hundreds of jumps from various positions, testing how his body perceives colossal overloads.
Despite the fact that the jump from the stratosphere was accompanied by a number of problems (for example, such that it was originally planned to fall from a much lower height, but the stratosphere balloon behaved unpredictably and rose higher), in general, it demonstrated the enormous possibilities that mankind has for implementation of the most daring plans.
