Joseph Kittinger, who set world record for highest parachute jump for 52 years, dies at 94

Watch Historic Footage of Joseph Kittinger’s 102,800 Jump from Space (1960)

Tampa native, longtime parachute record holder Joseph Kittinger dies at 94

Joseph Kittinger - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

In 1960, Captain Joseph W. Kittinger began the longest delayed parachute jump on record when he bailed out of a balloon gondola at 102,800 feet. He dropped 84,700 feet or 16.04 miles, falling for 4 min 49 sec, before opening his main 28-foot parachute over New Mexico. Before deploying his chute, his near free-fall was stabilized with a six-foot canopy to prevent a fatal flat spin. During his descent, he may have broken the sound barrier, reaching 714 mph in the rarified air at high altitude. Cap