Felix Baumgartner’s sonic boom featured in new footage of historic skydive

Baumgartner’s Lunch (Photo credit: jimmywayne)

 

Friday, October 26, 2012 4:05pm PDT

 

By: Pete Thomas, GrindTV.com

 

It has been nearly two weeks since Felix Baumgartner’s historic skydive from the edge of space, but on Friday the Red Bull Stratos project released the first video with soundtrack that experts believe contains an actual sonic boom–the first by a human not in an aircraft. Baumgartner, who stepped out of a space capsule 24 miles (or 128,100 feet) above earth, went supersonic at 34 seconds of free fall. Viewers can detect a faint boom at about the 25-second mark of the edited footage posted below.

 

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Experts believe that is the sound of the first human not in an aircraft breaking the speed of sound.

 

Red Bull Stratos – Felix Baumgartner (Photo credit: cattias.photos)

 

Art Thompson, director of a project that was seven years in the planning stages, is still working with sound experts to verify Baumgartner’s speed and the timing of the sonic boom.

Baumgartner safely negotiated the jump and a mind-boggling free fall that lasted four minutes, 20 seconds, on Oct. 14. But it was not without drama as his face plate fogged up and at one point early on he went into a spin.

“It felt like a flat spin,” said Baumgartner. “I had a lot of pressure in my head, but I felt I could regain control so we could go after the sound barrier.”

 

Red Bull Stratos – Felix Baumgartner (Photo credit: cattias.photos)

 
He set records for highest manned balloon flight (the space capsule was towed skyward via a stratospheric balloon), highest skydive and fastest free fall (833.9 mph), while wearing a pressurized suit to make the plunge through harsh atmospheric conditions survivable.

 

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• Daredevil skydiver Felix Baumgartner makes bid to break sound barrier (independent.co.uk)
• Felix Baumgartner’s sonic boom featured in new footage of historic skydive (grindtv.com)
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• Felix Baumgartner’s historic 23-mile-high skydive attempt is under way (grindtv.com)
• Felix Baumgartner: ‘I’m retiring’ (telegraph.co.uk)
• Felix Baumgartner: I didn’t feel sonic boom (ac360.blogs.cnn.com)