It could be that Joe had a different mass (or maybe a different drag coefficient) that could lead to a different time. Perhaps this could be the reason that Felix didn't break the free fall time record. Of course, I kept the drag coefficient and the cross sectional area of the jumper constant. So, by reducing the mass of the jumper down to 70 kg I get a free fall time around 5 minutes. Here is a plot of the free fall time from 102,000 feet to 3,000 feet (I think 2,000 feet was too low) as a function of jumper mass. If Felix had more gear with him, or even a different shaped space suit, this could lead to different effects from air resistance. There is something else that could matter: mass. Even if he did fall to a lower altitude, I don't get the correct time. That still doesn't give the correct free fall time for Joe Kittinger's record setting free fall time. Higher starting positions have longer free fall times. starting height for values from 128,000 feet to 102,000 feet. Just for fun, here is a plot of free fall time vs. What if I change the ending height for the 102k jump to 2,000 feet instead of the reported 8,000 feet? That would increase the free fall time to 4 minutes and 30 seconds. Ok - this seems to be a possible explanation. The same jump from 102k gives a time of almost exactly 4 minutes. This is fairly close to the official reported value of 4 minutes and 20 seconds. With both jumps ending at 2,400 meters.įrom this model, I get a 128k jump time of 4 minutes and 14 seconds. Here is the height-time plot for a jump from 128k feet and 102k feet. With this, I can just make two numerical models.
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