Moments of Enchantment; 192; Joseph Kittinger - Project Man High

Moments of Enchantment brought to you by the New Mexico Office of Cultural Affairs and 770 K-O-B Radio. A lone man leaped into the freezing skies high above New Mexico to slow his fearful fall. All he wore was experimental equipment. But the test failed, death was certain, because the man leaped from a balloon 20 miles up, more in a moment. The early history of fighter jets tells the tragic story of many pilots, pilots who died of exposure at high altitudes after ejecting from crippled aircraft. If extreme cold or lack of oxygen didn't kill them, the parachutes would, because the first parachutes weren't made for the velocities of high altitude jets, or for the winds in which they flew. In the 1960s, at Hulliman Air Force Base Aeromedical Laboratories, near El Amagordo, Dr. John P. Stapp headed a team attempting to solve these high-altitude jumping problems.

Human tolerances were tested to establish the maximum speed at which an ejection could take place, and to find out how much to eject, the pilot, or the entire cockpit. Scientists were also searching for ways to stabilize the parachute, so the pilot was not literally twisted into unconsciousness, and certain death. In August of 1969, a daring Air Force pilot named Captain Joseph Kittinger jumped from an altitude of 20 miles, more than 99% of the Earth's atmosphere lay beneath them. For more than 13 minutes, Kittinger plunged toward Earth, sometimes at velocities approaching the speed of sound. Kittinger ultimately landed uninjured. In the process, he proved that future pilots could also survive ejections from near space, thanks to the experimental pressure suit and specially designed parachutes, he was the first to courageously wear. For more information on early space explorers, visit the space center in El Amagordo. Moments of Enchantment brought to you by the new Mexico Office of Cultural Affairs.

For Moments of Enchantment, I'm David Griffin.