Notice : on October the 8th 2012 is the Date - a Live Human Being is going to JUMP out of a Special Type Space Capsule from the edge of Space and attempt to break the Sound Barrier with his own Body as he Rocket Propells back to Earth by just Gravity , will he make it , or , meet his Fate ??  Below the Video is a web link to know more about this Historical Jump from the edge of SPACE ~ !!   Video Link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ2sdOiI9rI&feature=g-all-u  .

Jetranger wrote on Oct 2^nd, 2012 at 2:50am:


Wow, rocket propelled gravity............anyone informed Newton..............

Matt

I could never try that, my liver would explode and burn up on re entry. 

wahubna wrote on Oct 2^nd, 2012 at 2:28pm:


The burials will take place in Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, California, and the Pacific Ocean.

Bring a bunch of flowers.

Paul.... ...!

My class mates think this process is very well thought out and his suit is well designed...they exclaimed "No man! He has 3 specially designed parachutes and a team of scientists helping him!"

*reads suit/parachute design info*
His 3 chutes: a drogue, main, and reserve.....in other words standard except the main is 2.5 times bigger than normal..which means much more drag and force on his body...

Specs on suit: imagine a race car driver's suit with aluminum foil on the outside and its been modified to inflate....his helmet has a heated face shield and is distinctly not aerodynamic....

In other words, his suit is incredibly draggy and I think there actually is a distinct possibility he will NOT even get close to Mach 1. Considering that the fastest sky diving suits out there are very very aerodynamic designs and his is not, I would say this yahoo should have hired an aeronautical engineer that was not drinking all through college 

Im leaning towards he wont even hit Mach 1. Sky divers hit terminal velocity after a few thousand feet I think so jumping from a higher point might just make the drop longer. Remember the speed of sound CHANGES with altitude! So yeah he will hit a higher speed, but its likely he will not actually even approach Mach 1. Drag increases at a very fast rate near Mach 1 and it takes a whole lot of thrust to break it, so I doubt an idiot in fance shiny and draggy pj's jumping out of whatever at such and such an altitude will do it.

Dont get me wrong, I do hope I am wrong and he does actually break Mach 1 and generates a shock wave.....the slowing down part will surely be the most interesting part 

Anyone remember P-38s and F-86 Sabres getting damaged due to stresses in high speed dives?? 


*EDIT* I just watched the video...based on their expectations of "Mach 1.89", I am willing to bet my life and everything I own and even my wife on the fact that they will twist the meaning of a Mach number so they actually do it....Again, Mach number changes with density!!!!!!!!
so he WILL go very very fast, but compared to the local air density I highly doubt he will actually hit Mach 1. People need to remember too that Mach .99 behaves the same at sea level as it does at 90,000ft because it is a function LOCAL air qualities.

Rifleman wrote on Oct 4^th, 2012 at 11:16pm:


2 things about the Kittinger:
1) Red Bull was not the sponsor so it was not a legitimate stunt.....doing it for a military study totally does not count!  *sarcasm*

2) Seriously though I did not catch if he went supersonic or not. They said he hit over 1,000km/h, but what was his Mach #? Again, its not the raw speed, its the MACH # that is important but its very very easy to twist a Mach # around to present false results.