Skyfall

Black Hole

Black Hole

May contain traces of nut
No, this is not a rant about how (censored) I am the new Bond movie will not be available on free-to-air no matter how long I wait.

Austrian goes up on a stratospheric balloon. Base camp radios up "Got vertigo?" "Nein, just 24 miles".

I can't decide whether he truly broke the speed of sound (ie the sound barrier). Speed of sound at ground level is about 330 metres per second or 1200 km/h. However, the speed of sound goes up with decreasing pressure so I very much doubt he actually broke the sound barrier. If not the sound barrier, what's the point? At least Concorde broke the sound barrier (used to set my watch by it), even if when the in-cabin Mach-meter said "2.00" it wasn't actually going twice the speed of sound (at that altitude).

As far as being the fastest "not in a vessel", the first spacewalk would have done that. Much faster.
 
Surely (sorry) altitude is irrelevant as long as pressure waves are produced. I think he exceeded 300 kph.

Edit: 330 metres per second.
 
According to reports, when he was spinning he could do nothing about it because there was not enough air density to perform aerodynamic manoeuvres. Pressure waves? Doubt it. Even if there had been a sonic boom you would have to be on the dispersion cone to hear it.

Great stunt, sure, but I reckon the "justifications" are pure blarney.

It amazes me a balloon can get that high. I understand helium is becoming a scarce resource now though, so I'm not sure party balloons or stratospheric stunts are justifiable.
 
Felix Baumgartner hit Mach 1.24, or 833.9 mph, according to preliminary data, and became the first person to reach supersonic speed without traveling (sic) in a jet or a spacecraft after hopping out of a capsule that had reached an altitude of 128,100 feet above the Earth.
 
OK, I admit defeat. It seems sound velocity actually decreases (in a complicated way) with altitude up to 24 miles (there might be more to it than just pressure).

"the first person to reach supersonic speed without traveling in a jet or a spacecraft after hopping out of a capsule that had reached an altitude of 128,100 feet above the Earth" seems very narrowly defined!

In space, no-one can hear you scream
 
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