Joseph Kittinger

Joseph William Kittinger II (July 27, 1928 – December 9, 2022) was an officer in the United States Air Force (USAF) who served from 1950 to 1978, and earned Command Pilot status before retiring with the rank of colonel.

After racing speedboats as a teenager, he entered the U.S. Air Force as an aviation cadet in March 1949.

On completion of aviation cadet training in March 1950, he received his pilot wings and a commission as a second lieutenant.

In 1954, Kittinger was transferred to the Air Force Missile Development Center (AFMDC) at Holloman AFB, New Mexico.

It was during this assignment that he flew the observation/chase plane that monitored flight surgeon Colonel John Stapp's rocket sled run of 632 mi/h in 1955.

Kittinger was impressed by Stapp's dedication and leadership as a pioneer in aerospace medicine.

Stapp, in turn, was impressed with Kittinger's skillful jet piloting, later recommending him for space-related aviation research work.

He participated in the Project Manhigh and Project Excelsior high-altitude balloon flight projects from 1956 to 1960 and was the first man to fully witness the curvature of the Earth.

A fighter pilot during the Vietnam War, Kittinger shot down a North Vietnamese MiG-21 jet fighter.

Stapp was to foster the high-altitude balloon tests that would later lead to Kittinger's record-setting leap from over 102,800 ft. In 1957, as part of Project Manhigh, Kittinger set an interim balloon altitude record of 96,760 ft in Manhigh I, for which he was awarded his first Distinguished Flying Cross.

Captain Kittinger was next assigned to the Aerospace Medical Research Laboratories at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio.

For Project Excelsior (meaning "ever upward"), a name given to the project by Colonel Stapp as part of research into high-altitude bailouts, he made a series of three extreme altitude parachute jumps from an open gondola carried aloft by large helium balloons.

These jumps were made in a "rocking-chair" position, descending on his back, rather than in the usual face-down position familiar to skydivers.

This was because he was wearing a 60 lb "kit" on his behind, and his pressure suit naturally formed a sitting shape when it was inflated, a shape appropriate for sitting in an airplane cockpit.

Excelsior I: Kittinger's first high-altitude jump, from about 76,400 ft on November 16, 1959, was a near-disaster when an equipment malfunction caused him to lose consciousness.

The automatic parachute opener in his equipment saved his life.

He went into a flat spin at a rotational velocity of about 120 rpm, the g-forces at his extremities having been calculated to be over 22 times the force of gravity, setting another record.

Excelsior II: On December 11, 1959, Kittinger jumped again from about 74,700 ft. For this leap, he was awarded the A. Leo Stevens Parachute Medal.

He held the world record for the highest skydive—102,800 feet (31.3 km)—from 1960 until 2012.

Excelsior III: On August 16, 1960, Kittinger made the final high-altitude jump at 102800 ft. Towing a small drogue parachute for initial stabilization, he fell for 4 minutes and 36 seconds, reaching a maximum speed of 614 mph before opening his parachute at 18000 ft. Incurring yet another equipment malfunction, the pressurization for his right glove malfunctioned during the ascent and his right hand swelled to twice its normal size, but he rode the balloon up to 102,800 feet before stepping off.

Of the jumps from Excelsior, Kittinger said:

"There's no way you can visualize the speed. There's nothing you can see to see how fast you're going. You have no depth perception. If you're in a car driving down the road and you close your eyes, you have no idea what your speed is. It's the same thing if you're free falling from space. There are no signposts. You know you are going very fast, but you don't feel it. You don't have a 614-mph wind blowing on you. I could only hear myself breathing in the helmet."

Kittinger set historical numbers for highest balloon ascent, highest parachute jump, longest-duration drogue-fall (four minutes), and fastest speed by a human being through the atmosphere.

These were the USAF records, but were not submitted for aerospace world records to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).

Kittinger's record for the highest ascent was broken in 1961 by Malcolm Ross and Victor Prather.

Back at Holloman Air Force Base, Kittinger took part in Project Stargazer on December 13–14, 1962.

He and the astronomer William C. White took an open-gondola helium balloon packed with scientific equipment to an altitude of about 82,200 ft, where they spent over 18 hours performing astronomical observations.

Kittinger appeared as himself on the January 7, 1963 episode of the game show To Tell the Truth.

He received two votes.

In 1965, after returning to the operational Air Force, Kittinger was approached by civilian amateur parachutist Nick Piantanida for assistance on Piantanida's Strato Jump project, an effort to break the previous freefall records of both Kittinger and Soviet Air Force officer Yevgeni Andreyev.

Kittinger refused to participate in the effort, believing Piantanida's approach to the project was too reckless.

He was later shot down as well, subsequently spending 11 months as a prisoner of war in a North Vietnamese prison before he was repatriated in 1973.

In 1984, he became the first person to make a solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in a gas balloon.

He was subsequently assigned to the 86th Fighter-Bomber Wing based at Ramstein Air Base in West Germany, flying the F-84 Thunderjet and F-86 Sabre.

In 2012, Kittinger participated in the Red Bull Stratos project as capsule communicator at age 84, directing Felix Baumgartner on his 24 mi freefall from Earth's stratosphere, which broke Kittinger's own 53-year-old record.

Baumgartner's record would be broken two years later by Alan Eustace.

Born in Tampa, Florida, and raised in Orlando, Florida, Kittinger was educated at The Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida, and the University of Florida.

He became fascinated with planes at a young age and soloed in a Piper Cub by the time he was 17.

His records for highest parachute jump and fastest velocity stood for 52 years, until they were broken in 2012 by Felix Baumgartner.

For this series of jumps, Kittinger was profiled in Life magazine and the National Geographic Magazine, decorated with a second Distinguished Flying Cross, and awarded the Harmon Trophy by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.