One interesting topic that I learned
about last week was about Joseph
Kittinger and his participation in
Project Excelsior. I was so amused
with the brief story of his excursion
that I wanted to do a little more research
on it. Kittinger did the project with the
ambition to determine the issues of high
altitude bailout. Apparently, he took
several of these high altitude flights with a
high altitude balloon and open gondola. His
record-breaking flight occured on August
16, 1960, since he did reach an altitude of
102,800 feet, and the highest parachute jump.
His record fall lasted four minutes and
thirty-six seconds. His parachute opened
when he was at about 14,000 feet.
Then, he landed eight minutes after that point.
Now that is what I call intense skydiving.
He was ultimately brave for doing all of
these high altitude projects. I can barely
stand being in airplane altitudes and he
flew much higher than that. I give him
much appreciation for his courage. I
found out that Joseph Kittinger is still
alive and flying. It is obvious that he has
a huge passion for it. If I were to inter-
view him, I would ask him what his
secret is. I know I am terrified of flying
and I just want to know what he feels
about it. I also want to know more in
depth about what he felt during the
whole experience of the project,
physically and emotionally.
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