Wednesday, February 20, 2008

World’s record highest-flying balloonist (and longest parachuting free-faller) to speak at Frontiers of Flight Museum

... and he answers a few preliminary questions for us here at Pegasus News.

By John P. Meyer

In Aug. of 1960, a fellow named Joe Kittinger stepped out of the gondola hanging beneath a specially-constructed high-altitude balloon which was floating along at an altitude of 102,800 feet. (That's about 19 miles up, folks!) Four and a half minutes later - having fallen at speeds over 600 mph while descending to 18,000 feet - he popped his main 'chute and (eventually) returned safely to terra firma. He still holds the record for highest balloon flight and longest free-fall - though his record for fastest person shooting through the atmosphere outside of a vehicle was broken by the guy who ejected from an SR-71 Blackbird while doing Mach 3+. (Yikes!)

No, this is not a spacewalk - it's Joe Kittinger leaping out of a balloon gondola at 102,800 feet. (Roughly.)

What most people don't realize is that Col. Kittinger (pronounced with the "soft" g, as in "girl" - which is what I would have been screaming like while falling from 102,800 ft.) made two previous high altitude leaps from slightly less far off the ground; on the first of these, due to equipment failure, he went into a flat spin and reached a rotational velocity of 120 rpm (equivalent to 22 g's - holy crap!) and only avoided a big terminal splatter event thanks to the automatic parachute backup system which eventually pulled him out of the uncontrolled spiraling descent.

Col. Kittinger (U.S. Air Force, ret.), who went on to serve three combat tours in Vietnam and a 10-month stint in the Hanoi Hilton (courtesy of his North Vietnamese captors), will be in Dallas at the Frontiers of Flight Museum on Tuesday, Feb. 26 to talk about his long career as an aviator. Here's the lowdown.

Interview: Col. Joseph (Joe) Kittinger, USAF (ret.)

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I had a chance to talk with Col. Kittinger by phone. You can listen in via the accompanying podcast.

Highlights of our 15-minute conversation:

* Col. Kittinger has logged 16,000 hours in flight time (airplanes and balloons), in 91 different types of aircraft

* Attendees at the Frontiers of Flight Museum talk will get a look at a video of his record-setting parachute jump

* His answer to the question that starts, "if you could fly only one airplane...": the P-51 Mustang

* During the big push in the late '90's to circumnavigate the globe in a balloon, he tried to secure a sponsor to fund his own effort to do so. Without success.

* And, finally, Col. Kittinger swears that he was not screaming all the way down from the stratosphere. (Yeah, right.)

To hear from Col. Kittinger in person, head out to the Frontiers of Flight Museum on Tuesday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. Admission is $15, or $10 for museum members. You'll want to call ahead to reserve your place in the audience, because seating is limited: call 214-350-1651 to take care of that detail.

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