![]() ![]() Although it gave him claustrophobia, the spacesuit ensured he had a 3 psi environment during the freefall.Īlong with the suit, he wore an eight-pound composite helmet that included an oxygen regulator. Baumgartner wore a pressure suit that protected him from the extreme temperatures he faced. The team trialed different types of equipment in preparation for the mission. This is an extremely difficult feat without engines powering you, but as Baumgartner proved, it’s possible with the right equipment and scientific teams behind you. Part of this was thanks to the height from which he fell, which gave him enough time to accumulate a greater speed. In the case of Baumgartner, Red Bull, the brand that sponsored his jump, recorded what they believe was his sonic boom once he burst through the barrier.īaumgartner managed to break the sound barrier by reaching a speed of 833.9 mph. When breaking the sound barrier, a sonic boom nearly always follows. It requires the object (or human) to be going at speeds of around 770 mph, though this fluctuates depending on the altitude. Breaking the sound barrier - the speed that sound travels - entails going beyond that speed. The speed of sound isn’t a set number, but rather an equation, since it depends on what medium sound is traveling through. They’re impressive accomplishments, but how were they made possible? The Sound Barrierīaumgartner not only broke the world record for breaking the sound barrier in freefall, but he earned seven more world records from the feat, including the fastest speed in freefall, the highest altitude untethered outside a vehicle, and the most concurrent views for a live event on YouTube. The morning of the mission, a balloon lifted Baumgartner in a capsule off the ground in New Mexico, floating him to the edge of the atmosphere. To prepare for the feat of breaking the sound barrier by freefall, he underwent training and worked with an experienced team. But back in 2012, a skydiver broke the sound barrier by freefalling with a well-equipped pressure suit and a parachute from a height of 127,852 feet.įelix Baumgartner, skydiver and former member of the Austrian military, decided to tackle this challenge following many skydives and multiple BASE jumps he performed from the world’s most iconic buildings and structures, like the Christ the Redeemer Statue and Petronas Towers. Traveling faster than the speed of sound seems impossible for a human to accomplish without the use of jet planes or machinery. Sign up here to get the day’s top stories delivered straight to your inbox.Įarlier this year, United Airlines made headlines for purchasing Boom Supersonic’s Overture jets that can break the sound barrier. ![]() Welcome to Thomas Insights - every day, we publish the latest news and analysis to keep our readers up to date on what’s happening in industry. ![]()
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