Jet Engine Truck Unleashes An Inferno Joseph Kittinger Joseph Kittinger The U.S. military has often been involved in setting aviation records. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Golden Age of Air Racing, members of the military competed in the National Air Races and set several records, helping to improve aviation technology in the process. Jimmy Doolittle set several records in the 1920s and 1930s, both as a member of the military and as a civilian. In the late 1950s and into the 1960s, another person who set records as a member of the military and in the mid-1980s as a civilian was Joseph Kittinger, Jr. While a member of the U.S. Joseph Kittinger was born on July 27, 1928, and grew up near Orlando, Florida. In 1958, Kittinger moved to the Escape Section of the Aeromedical Laboratory at Wright Air Development Center's Aero Medical Laboratory. On November 16, 1959, Kittinger piloted Excelsior I to 76,000 feet (23,165 meters) and returned to Earth by jumping, free falling, and parachuting to the desert floor in New Mexico. --Judy Rumerman Standard 4
Ask Us - Fastest Skydiver Joseph Kittinger Fastest Skydiver Joseph Kittinger I heard that a man jumped from a balloon at the edge of space and broke the sound barrier during his fall. Who was he and when did this happen? - question from Ivan Velasko & Roland The person you are asking about is Joseph Kittinger who accomplished a number of pioneering high-altitude feats during the 1950s and 1960s. Joseph Kittinger Joe Kittinger was born in 1928 and became interested in aeronautics at a young age. Dr. Stapp later became a leader of the Air Force's high-altitude research program and recommended Kittinger as a test pilot. Kittinger next joined the Escape Section of the Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory located at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio in 1958. Kittinger wearing his heavy gear standing next to the Excelsior gondola Kittinger's first high-altitude jump came on 16 November 1959 when he bailed out of the Excelsior I balloon at a height of 76,000 ft (23,165 m) over the New Mexico desert. Gondola of the Stargazer balloon where