American aerospace pioneer Joseph Kittinger dies at 94

Then-Capt. Kittinger free-fell for 4 minutes 37 seconds, reaching speeds over 600 mph.

The bounce was a part of early space-age exploration, occurring earlier than people had landed on the moon and when it was unclear whether or not an individual might survive a bounce from the sting of area.

Col. Kittinger died of lung most cancers, in keeping with a good friend, former U.S. consultant John L. Mica, the Associated Press reported. The United States Parachute Association (USPA) additionally introduced his dying.

USPA stated in a press release late Friday that it was “saddened” by his dying, noting that he grew to become a distinguished nationwide determine when “he made a long, lonely leap from a hot-air balloon 102,800 feet above the Earth,” on Aug. 16, 1960, as a U.S. Air Force captain concerned in Project Excelsior.

As a part of the challenge, he accomplished three jumps over 10 months from a pressurized gondola hoisted into the stratosphere by massive helium balloons — his first try was nearly deadly, however he was undeterred. The challenge sought to check whether or not people might survive extraordinarily high-altitude bailouts and to design ejection programs for navy pilots.

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In his remaining record-breaking bounce, he took off from the New Mexico desert sporting a cumbersome strain swimsuit — that may briefly malfunction — and rigged with gear that nearly doubled his weight, then fell at document speeds.

It took him 1 hour 31 minutes to climb to his most altitude, at the same time as he started experiencing extreme ache in his proper hand due to a failure in his strain glove. He remained at peak altitude for round 12 minutes earlier than stepping out of his gondola to free fall, then parachute right down to a touchdown.

“There’s no way you can visualize the speed,” Col. Kittinger instructed Florida Trend journal in 2011. “There’s nothing you can see to see how fast you’re going. You have no depth perception. … There are no signposts. I could only hear myself breathing in the helmet,” he stated.

In 1960, he was awarded the Harmon Trophy by President Dwight D. Eisenhower for excellent accomplishments in aeronautics.

His document for the very best balloon ascent and the longest parachute free fall would stand for 52 years. It was damaged in 2012, when Col. Kittinger labored as a advisor to the Austrian Felix Baumgartner, who jumped from 128,000 ft, plummeting to Earth at speeds over 800 mph.

Joseph Kittinger Jr. was born in Tampa in 1928 and have become fascinated with planes at a really younger age, in accordance to the New Mexico Museum of Space History. He attended the University of Florida earlier than making use of for Air Force cadet coaching. He obtained his pilot wings in 1950.

He retired as a colonel in 1978 after a embellished profession with the Air Force, together with serving three excursions in Vietnam as a pilot, the place he spent 11 months as a prisoner of warfare, according to the National Aviation Hall of Fame.

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He continued his trailblazing as an adventurer, setting one other document in 1983 for the longest distance flown in a 1,000 cubic meter helium balloon.

In 1984, he grew to become the primary particular person to fly solo throughout the Atlantic Ocean in a helium balloon, from Maine, to the Italian Riviera. A jubilant Col. Kittinger instructed reporters on the time that the flight had been “pure, unadulterated adventure.” He added “you just have to go for it; that’s the American way.”

Col. Kittinger wrote a ebook in 1961, “The Long, Lonely Leap,” and remained energetic in aeronautics initiatives, particularly ballooning, after his retirement. He lived in Orlando, the place a park is called after him.

A memorial service will probably be deliberate for January, USPA stated.