The highest jump ever made was by Joseph Kittinger in 1960--31 km. This year, astronaut Felix Baumgartner will attempt a 36 km jump, and there is talk about Michael Fournier attempting a 40 km jump. According to medical director Jonathan Clark (via Science magazine, subscription required), jumps from this height have a variety of health risks, including nitrogen bubbling from the blood, sweat freezing on the skin, and spinning while falling -- leading to a brain hemorage. There's also the issue of what will happen when he breaks the sound barrier, which could produce massive shock-waves (though there is precedent for a test pilot surviving after his plane broke up while traveling faster than the speed of sound).
The reward? Aside from glory, the data collected is expected to give us a better idea of the risks involved in the next generation of manned space flight.
I agree that Indian and Pakistani people do tend to overhype their CVs. That said, did you know that the average Pakistani degree holder spoke whatever regional language before attending school and...
This is my first comment on Disqus. I had to reboot my brain to figure out why my first 5 attempts to log in and view comments didn't work. Is it age making mock of me? Maybe, but for as long...
Hi. Being a keen reader / viewer of accident investigations I immediately remembered prior problems with the 787 in general and the FADEC in particular. So pilot error/malice was far from my mind....
The 16 to 1 against is the chance that this particular accident was pilot error/malice. As I explain in the article, odds based on an OR truth table should not be taken as a general statistical...
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