Talk:Joseph Kittinger

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I'm not sure, but isn't the speed of sound slower at higher altitudes? If so perhaps he broke the sound barrier at higher altitude, even though at sea level he would've been going slower than sound.

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During an interview for a television documentary Kittinger said "I did go supersonic" on his freefall. There was no way for him to measure or know whether or not he went supersonic while he was falling. That is for others to determine. Hence, he's just another guy with an ego problem.

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Should "he is remembered" not be changed to "he is best remembered" because the former suggests that his involvement in the two Air Force projects mentioned in the article are the only things he has ever done. (I'm sure his family etc. would suggest otherwise)

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The person with the first comment obviously does not know Col. Joe Kittinger personally or the details of his experiment. He is very humble, definitely without "an ego problem!" Additionally, Col. Kittinger had a speedometer strapped to his chest during the fall, measuring his speed throughout.

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I agree with the above. I have met Col. Joe Kittinger and flown with him. He has no ego problem. He is honest and truthful, a very down to earth guy, if you'll pardon the pun.

Contents 1 "First Man in Space" claim 2 length of free-fall? 3 terminal velocity 4 Bass and Prather 5 3rd April, 2008 - Award

[edit] "First Man in Space" claim

The Air Force definition of "space" has never included altitudes as low as that attained by Kittinger (see, eg [1]), so if he was ever regarded as "First Man in Space" it could only have been by the media. A citation substantiating the latter needs to be provided before this is stated in the entry Robma 07:49, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

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Why would he "occasionally rib" Yaeger about being the first supersonic man when Yaeger did it in 1947? If his drops were in '59-60 then that part doesn't make any sense.

Yeager did it in an airplane--Kittinger was the first "man" to do so--sans airplane.

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COL Kittinger would rib Yeager because he achieved supersonic speed without benefit of engines, making him the first truly "supersonic man". Interest is being revived in Kittinger's feat because of Michel Fournier's attempt to break his records for highest, fastest and longest freefall, and also balloon altitude.

[edit] length of free-fall?

on the USAF website, it states he free-falled for only 4.5 minutes, not over 13 minutes, in his record jump.

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=1114

Dividing 20 miles by 0.2 hrs (12 min) is only 100 mph, is that correct? If it were in 1/3 the time the average speed would be 3 times as great. Is there another source for the 13 minute time? --kris 23:32, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] terminal velocity

Someone made an edit to the page changing the top speed of the famous fall from 714 to 614MPH. The given citation, which is archived, does not support this change. However, the 614 number is supported by the page at http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=1114 , which kris helpfully linked above. Someone will need to clean this up, eventually. --Markzero 09:22, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bass and Prather

Did the jump by Victor Prather and Malcolm Ross (balloonist) break Kittinger's record? Should this be mentioned in the article? Carcharoth 14:45, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

They just got to a higher altitude with the balloon, I don't see anywhere mentioned they jumped from the balloon. JH-man 12:59, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 3rd April, 2008 - Award

"Joseph Kittinger Will Receive the Air and Space Museum's Highest Honor Today" http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/AsSeenOnGMA/story?id=4580672&page=1 218.215.60.227 (talk) 13:29, 4 April 2008 (UTC)