Exreme HALO

[Paslode]

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/...personic-suit/

ohn R. Quain

- FOXNews.com

- April 11, 2010
Daredevil to Plunge From Outer Space in Supersonic Suit

Skydiving is dangerous. Skydiving from a plane in outer space can kill you, with temperatures that can freeze a body and pressure that can boil blood. To survive his 23-mile plunge from the edge of space, Felix Baumgartner will depend on a truly unique new spacesuit.

Skydiving is dangerous -- but not nearly as dangerous as skydiving from a plane in outer space.

That can kill you. The temperature can freeze your body, and the lack of air pressure can boil your blood.

Nonetheless, an Austrian daredevil named Felix Baumgartner plans to take the 23-mile plunge from the edge of space. And in the process, he hopes to become the first parachutist to break the sound barrier, plummeting toward the ground at 760 miles per hour.

But this is no stunt; it's called the Red Bull Stratos project, and the engineers and scientists behind this attempt to break the record for the highest freefall ever -- from 120,000 feet above sea level -- hope it will yield volumes of data that will be used to develop advanced life support systems for future pilots, astronauts, and even space tourists.

And to do it, they've designed a unique supersonic spacesuit.

No one else has tried to use a pressurized suit as Baumgartner plans to; they're typically used to protect jet pilots who eject from their seats -- not skydivers who plan to travel faster than sound.

"So we reconfigured the arms and legs on his suit," says Daniel McCarter, who is building the suit at the David Clark Company, which has developed protective suits -- called PPAs or pilot protective assemblies --since 1941. The company made the first suits to prevent World War II fighter pilots from blacking out during high-acceleration maneuvers, not to mention launch entry suits for space shuttle astronauts.

The changes being made to Baumgartner's suit will allow him to dive with his head at a 25- to 35-degree angle and to control his speed. Full pressure suits for pilots are generally configured for comfort in a sitting position, but "for Felix it's in an almost standing position," says McCarter. The shoulder areas also have to be more flexible, and the designers had to ensure that there will be no "binding up" that could prevent him from making critical maneuvers in freefall.

The suit will essentially be Baumgartner's life-support system, providing oxygen, telemetry, communications and, most importantly, enough pressure to keep him alive. To do this, the suit contains devices known as aneroids, which act like mechanical bellows and respond instantly to changes in atmospheric pressure. When they sense low air pressure, the aneroids trap air in the suit, which then becomes pressurized, squeezing the wearer.

The pressurization is essential: above 63,000 feet, the lack of air pressure makes it not only difficult to get oxygen into the lungs (which would cause Baumgartner to black out), but it also makes it easy for nitrogen bubbles to escape from the blood, causing an embolism and death. Baumgartner's suit will maintain 3.5 psi of pressure -- not so tight that he can't maneuver his arms and legs, but enough to keep nitrogen bubbles from killing him.

"It feels like getting into a sleeping bag with arms," says McCarter. There's a nylon comfort liner, then a ventilation system that keeps the wearer cool. Next comes the pressurized gas layer, followed by a hand-woven layer called the link net that maintains the shape of the suit. Finally, there's the outer, flame-retardant layer made of the heat- and flame-resistant fiber Nomex.

Team members declined to reveal the cost of the suits (there are three: the original prototype, the one Baumgartner will wear, and a backup), except to agree that the Red Bull Stratos project is a multimillion-dollar effort.

So what will it feel like when Baumgartner opens the hatch of the gondola suspended below the weather balloon that will take him to space, and he steps out into 23 miles of nothingness?

"For about the first 30 seconds he's not going to feel anything," says Mike Todd, a life-support engineer at Sage Cheshire Aerospace and a member of the Red Bull Stratos team. This is particularly dangerous because, even though the air is so thin that it won't feel like he's even falling, Baumgartner must get into exactly the right position -- the so-called delta position -- to attain the speed he wants and survive the five-and-a-half-minute descent.

Todd expects Baumgartner will reach Mach1 somewhere between 100,000 and 90,000 feet. But it won't be overly uncomfortable. At that altitude, he says, "It will feel like putting your hand out the window of a car going 35 mph."

McCarter is convinced the suit will protect Baumgartner, based on pilots who have survived ejections at similar altitudes

But exactly what will happen when -- if -- Baumgartner becomes the first supersonic man remains unknown. Could the sonic boom damage his hearing? Will the turbulence of breaking the speed of sound spin him out of control? Will there be any turbulence at all?

"... we don't know what's going to happen," Todd says. "We'll try and push him through it as quickly as possible, but once he steps out of that hatch, he's going to be on his own."

760 MPH......Crazy!

[Pete]

What, were you on vacation and not reading the board last month?

http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/...ht=Baumgartner

[Chris Cram]

Originally Posted by Pete

What, were you on vacation and not reading the board last month?

http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/...ht=Baumgartner

And another thread... (~98,000 feet)

http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/...seph+Kittinger

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/es...inger/EX31.htm

[Box]

meh

[Paslode]

Originally Posted by Pete

What, were you on vacation and not reading the board last month?

http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/...ht=Baumgartner

Hmmmm....

[Warrior-Mentor]

Here, try this VIDEO on for size...
http://post.ly/X3Z8

[Peregrino]

Originally Posted by Warrior-Mentor

Here, try this VIDEO on for size...
http://post.ly/X3Z8

Here's wishing him every success. You'll have to let us know how it goes.

[Team Sergeant]

OK HALO/MFF soldiers post your high jump.....

I'll start, 26,250 on Ft Bragg.

(If you think that is high wait until those OKI MFF guys post.....)

[Stras]

Originally Posted by Team Sergeant

OK HALO/MFF soldiers post your high jump.....

I'll start, 26,250 on Ft Bragg.

(If you think that is high wait until those OKI MFF guys post.....)

25,000 on Ft Bragg, testing new O2 mask. zero degrees on the ground, -65 at exit altitude.

[Green Light]

26,000 and change. They fudged a bit on a 25,000' drop. 1st pass was a no-go and we "grew" a couple of K. IIRC (I'll have to dig up my log book) it was using the old military paracommanders (was that an MC3? can't remember).

[Papa Zero Three]

Originally Posted by Stras

25,000 on Ft Bragg, testing new O2 mask. zero degrees on the ground, -65 at exit altitude.

I was on that jump, colder than a witches tit. If I remember correctly, that was a HAHO jump.

As for Felix Baumgartner and this attempt, I hope he does it but I am not holding my breath. Felix is well known for being a self licking ice cream cone and a lot of what he has done has been overblown and in some cases misrepresented. The English channel crossing is a good example, he never made it all the way across, he had to deploy his canopy to make it back to land but you won't find that part in too many of the stories or press releases. In all honesty, I'd rather see Cheryl Sterns or even that French guy pull this off than Felix B., Lord knows they have been trying to do it a lot longer than Felix has and their motivation was about the science and technology, not marketing for Red Bull.

Something to keep your eye on. Tomorrow, the 14th of April, Golden Knight Ben Borger will be attempting to break the distance record for distance flown in a wingsuit out in Oklahoma. Video about the event can be seen HERE

[rdret1]

25,500 at Rota, Spain and again at Stavros, Greece.

[The Reaper]

26,500 on a Combat Equipment HAHO over Sanford, NC, flew back to Sicily DZ.

July, 110 degrees, sitting in the back of a C-141 sucking on the console for a 45 minute pre-breathe. Exited with the air temp at a crisp 20 degrees. Sweat froze pretty quickly, including goggles. Left the toggles stowed and steered by shifting weight in the saddle. Eight second delay, 40 minutes under canopy.

TR

[tst43]

As a non-HALO static liner when I was on jump status, let me take this opportunity to state in response to some of the details of jumps posted herein and say WOW!!! and HOLY S@#$!!!

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by tst43

As a non-HALO static liner when I was on jump status, let me take this opportunity to state in response to some of the details of jumps posted herein and say WOW!!! and HOLY S@#$!!!

Well, I was fresh out of HALO school with 18 whole MFF jumps to my credit, trying to set the world record for LALO out of the back of a C-141 over Grenada, carrying over 150 pounds of lightweight gear, but when we had to get down below 2000 feet to see the ground, and the DZ was a postage stamp tucked between the water, the wires, and the mountains, a TS who was way smarter than me kept us out of trouble, and the books (and probably the cemetery as well).

Good thing Gary O was not on the team at that time, he would have probably done it anyway, alone if no one else followed him. Crazy bastard would have probably made it, too.

TR