How long was felix baumgartner in the air

The jump was not only a high profile stunt. Baumgartner's team gathered invaluable and unique data for the development of high-altitude parachute systems. Immediately after landing, Baumgartner fell onto his knees and raised his arms in success.

At a press conference immediately afterwards he said he had been "humbled" by the experience. You don't think about breaking records anymore, you don't think about gaining scientific data - the only thing that you want is to come back alive.

Unlike Baumgartner, who ascended in a capsule, Eustace hung from his gas balloon by a tether. When the time came for his release, he started his fall by using an explosive device to separate from the balloon. Red Bull Stratos: Controlling the elements. As Red Bull Stratos comes closer, we take a look at how the weather is a major source of concern. Felix Baumgartner's project took a giant leap into being with the first flight stage in New Mexico.

Red Bull Stratos: Call the doctor. A Hall of Fame aviator, Felix Baumgartner, from Austria, has always felt at home in the sky and is constantly challenging his limits.

From skydiving and BASE jumping to free-falling from space and now aerobatic helicopter flying, Felix Baumgartner can do it all. In , after years of dedicated training, the Austrian received his aerobatic helicopter pilot wings in the USA and performed in his first air show above Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas.

That would increase the free fall time to 4 minutes and 30 seconds. Just for fun, here is a plot of free fall time vs. This says what most people would think. Higher starting positions have longer free fall times. That still doesn't give the correct free fall time for Joe Kittinger's record setting free fall time.

Even if he did fall to a lower altitude, I don't get the correct time. There is something else that could matter: mass. If Felix had more gear with him, or even a different shaped space suit, this could lead to different effects from air resistance. Let me just start with mass.

Here is a plot of the free fall time from , feet to 3, feet I think 2, feet was too low as a function of jumper mass. So, by reducing the mass of the jumper down to 70 kg I get a free fall time around 5 minutes.

Of course, I kept the drag coefficient and the cross sectional area of the jumper constant. Perhaps this could be the reason that Felix didn't break the free fall time record. It could be that Joe had a different mass or maybe a different drag coefficient that could lead to a different time. This would increase his drag and decrease his speed.

Rhett Allain is an associate professor of physics at Southeastern Louisiana University. He enjoys teaching and talking about physics. Sometimes he takes things apart and can't put them back together.