How Felix Baumgartner stunned the world as he broke sound barrier jumping to Earth at 850mph
Record-breaking stuntman Felix Baumgartner has died at the age of 56, but has left an incredible legacy in his wake.
The Austrian athlete was paragliding over the Italian village of Porto Saint’Elpido on Thursday (July 17) when he reportedly lost consciousness while in flight.
Local media said he lost control of his paraglider and ended up crashing near a hotel pool.
Mayor Massimiliano Ciarpella also said reports suggested he may have suffered a sudden medical issue.
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The energy drink company Red Bull, who had previously sponsored many of Baumgartner’s exploits, also confirmed his passing.
Just hours before the fatal accident, the athlete shared a picture of a filled Red Bull windsock in what appears to be an airfield to his Instagram Stories.
“Too much wind,” the daredevil said while he added the song ‘Sit and Wait’.
Tributes have poured in for the extreme athlete, with one social media user declaring Felix a 'true daredevil and legend of human courage."
Felix's most famous stunt was back in 2012, when he made history for traveling faster than the speed of sound.
And he did so while free-falling from space at 850 mph.
On October 14, he traveled 38,969.4 meters above Earth and jumped, free-falling for over 36,000 meters before parachuting the remaining distance.
Felix went on to set world records for the first human to break the sound barrier in free-fall, highest free-fall parachute jump and achieved the fastest speed in free-fall.
It took six years of planning, training and a special pressure suit that made the mission possible.
Engineer Mike Todd broke down how the suit worked, explaining: "There's actually four layers to this suit. The outer coverall... is made out of Nomex, which is a fire-retardant material.
"The inner portion of the suit… One of the things that we have is something we call link-netting, and what link-netting does is it retains the torso shape of the body."
He continued: "Inside the link-netting we actually have the bladder material, which is made out of Gore-Tex, which actually vents the moisture out of the inside of the suit to the atmosphere, but it maintains pressure."
The design made the suit slightly easier to skydive in than a 'traditional' pressure suit - while maintaining that all-important pressure - however, it was so restrictive, Felix said at the time it was like 'breathing through a pillow'.
He later admitted he felt very little as he broke the sound barrier because his insulated suit softened external sounds and forces.
It took Felix a mere nine minutes and nine seconds to land back on our planet, in New Mexico.
Incredibly, despite his achievement, one of his records was broken two years later by computer scientist, Alan Eustace.
He fell from 41,422 meters, breaking Baumgartner's record for the highest free-fall parachute jump.
Topics: World News
Ellie Kemp