![]() Kittinger stayed at peak altitude for 12 minutes, waiting for the balloon to drift over the landing target area. The ascent took one hour and 31 minutes and broke the previous crewed balloon altitude record of 101,516 feet (30,942 m), which was set by Major David Simons as part of Project Manhigh in 1957. Despite temporarily losing the use of his right hand, he continued with the ascent, climbing to an altitude of 102,800 feet (31,333 m). ![]() (See Space exposure.) He decided not to inform the ground crew about this, in case they should decide to abort the test. During the ascent, the pressure seal in Kittinger's right glove failed, and he began to experience severe pain in his right hand from the exposure of his hand to the extreme low pressure. The third and final test, Excelsior III, was made on August 16, 1960. This time, Kittinger jumped from an altitude of 74,700 feet (22,769 m) and descended in free-fall for 55,000 feet (16,764 m) before opening his main parachute. The second test, Excelsior II, was made on December 11, 1959. This caused Kittinger to lose consciousness, but his life was saved by his main parachute which opened automatically at a height of 10,000 feet (3,048 m).ĭespite this near-disaster on the first test, Kittinger went ahead with another test only three weeks later. In this first test, the stabilizer parachute was deployed too soon, catching Kittinger around the neck and causing him to spin at 120 revolutions per minute. Kittinger ascended in the gondola and jumped from an altitude of 76,400 feet (23,287 m). The first test, Excelsior I, was made on November 16, 1959. He did not enjoy the jumping and was nearly killed. Together with the parachute system, this almost doubled his weight. As the gondola was unpressurized, Kittinger wore a modified David Clark MC-3A partial pressure suit during these tests, plus additional layers of clothing to protect him from the extreme cold at high altitude. Captain Joseph Kittinger, who was test director for the project, made three ascents and test jumps. To test the parachute system, staff at Wright Field built a 200 ft (61 m) high helium balloon with a capacity of nearly 3,000,000 cubic feet (85,000 m 3) that could lift an open gondola and test pilot into the stratosphere. The system included timers and altitude sensors that would automatically deploy both parachutes at the correct points in the descent, even if the parachutist were unconscious or disabled. This consisted of a small 6 ft (2 m) diameter stabilizer or "drogue" parachute, designed to prevent uncontrolled spinning at high altitudes, and a 28 ft (8.5 m) diameter main parachute that deployed at a lower altitude. Francis Beaupre, a technician at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, devised a multi-stage parachute system to facilitate human tests. Project Excelsior was initiated in 1958 to design a parachute system that would allow a safe, controlled descent after a high-altitude ejection. Tests in Operation High Dive with dummies had shown that a body in free-fall at high altitude would often go into a flat spin at a rate of up to 200 revolutions per minute (about 3.3 revolutions per second). He held the latter two of these records for 52 years, until they were broken by Felix Baumgartner of the Red Bull Stratos project in 2012, though he still holds the world record for longest time in free fall.Īs jet planes flew higher and faster in the 1950s, the Air Force became increasingly worried about the safety of flight crews who had to eject at high altitude. In one of these jumps Kittinger set world records for the longest parachute drogue fall, the highest parachute jump, and the fastest speed by a human through the atmosphere. The purpose was to test the Beaupre multi-stage parachute system intended to be used by pilots ejecting from high altitude. Project Excelsior was a series of parachute jumps made by Joseph Kittinger of the United States Air Force in 19 from helium balloons in the stratosphere. Helium balloon with open gondola (the aeronaut was wearing a pressure suit) Test of parachute for high altitude falls ![]()
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