'Time To Move On' For Austrian Daredevil Felix Baumgartner
- 12 years ago
The Austrian daredevil who leapt into the stratosphere from a balloon near the edge of space 24 miles above Earth early this month is looking forward to a career as a helicopter pilot.
"I think it's time to move on," Felix Baumgartner told Reuters on Tuesday (October 23).
"The next couple months, years I'm going to work -- I want to work -- as a helicopter pilot," the 43-year-old explained. "I always had two dreams when I was a little kid. The first dream was becoming a skydiver, which I did when I was 16. The second dream was becoming a helicopter pilot, but I could never afford to take the expensive lessons. So in 2006, I did my helicopter license. I'm a commercial helicopter pilot right now and I'm working on my skills."
Baumgartner set a record for the highest skydive and broke the sound barrier in the process on October 14th when he jumped from a skateboard-sized shelf, carried higher than 128,000 feet (39,045 meters) by an enormous balloon from a launch site in Roswell, New Mexico.
M ore than 8 million people watched his feat online as his body pierced the atmosphere at 833.9 miles per hour (1342km/h), according to preliminary numbers released by the project team.
"I had been told that there was going to be a shockwave going through your suit. I never felt it. I never saw it. And that supersonic boom that you create happens way behind you. So, when I opened my parachute I was still not sure did I break the speed of sound or not? But when I land, people on the ground, they heard that supersonic boom and there I knew, I broke the speed of sound -- the first human creating a supersonic boom on the way down. You know. That's big. It's the only existing supersonic boom created by a human person outside a plane!" the Austrian recalled.
Baumgartner's speed clinched one of his goals: to become the first skydiver to break the sound barrier
.Now, he's waiting for the release of the documentary produced by the BBC and National Geographic that chronicle the past five years of the Red Bull Stratos project to break the high-altitude jump record set by Joe Kittinger back in 1960.
"I think it's time to move on," Felix Baumgartner told Reuters on Tuesday (October 23).
"The next couple months, years I'm going to work -- I want to work -- as a helicopter pilot," the 43-year-old explained. "I always had two dreams when I was a little kid. The first dream was becoming a skydiver, which I did when I was 16. The second dream was becoming a helicopter pilot, but I could never afford to take the expensive lessons. So in 2006, I did my helicopter license. I'm a commercial helicopter pilot right now and I'm working on my skills."
Baumgartner set a record for the highest skydive and broke the sound barrier in the process on October 14th when he jumped from a skateboard-sized shelf, carried higher than 128,000 feet (39,045 meters) by an enormous balloon from a launch site in Roswell, New Mexico.
M ore than 8 million people watched his feat online as his body pierced the atmosphere at 833.9 miles per hour (1342km/h), according to preliminary numbers released by the project team.
"I had been told that there was going to be a shockwave going through your suit. I never felt it. I never saw it. And that supersonic boom that you create happens way behind you. So, when I opened my parachute I was still not sure did I break the speed of sound or not? But when I land, people on the ground, they heard that supersonic boom and there I knew, I broke the speed of sound -- the first human creating a supersonic boom on the way down. You know. That's big. It's the only existing supersonic boom created by a human person outside a plane!" the Austrian recalled.
Baumgartner's speed clinched one of his goals: to become the first skydiver to break the sound barrier
.Now, he's waiting for the release of the documentary produced by the BBC and National Geographic that chronicle the past five years of the Red Bull Stratos project to break the high-altitude jump record set by Joe Kittinger back in 1960.