Bernd van Doornick had some 22,000 total flying hours and is credited with more than 5,000 people rescued. September 1, 2007 marked his last flight at an air show, Bernd van Doornick showing the crowd gathered at Bex (Switzerland) what an Aerospatiale SA 315B Lama can do. The Lama holds to this day the absolute altitude record for all types of helicopters since 1972: 12,442 m. Quite an impressive helicopter, and with a skilled man at the controls this helo can do impressive stuff.
On August 16, 1960, Joseph Kittinger jumped into the record books with his record breaking Excelsior jump, doing so from an air-thin height of 102,800 feet (31,334 meters). From that nearly 20 miles altitude, his tumble toward terra firma took some 4 minutes and 36 seconds. Exceeding the speed of sound during the fall, Kittinger used a small stabilizing chute before a larger, main parachute opened in the denser atmosphere. He safely touched down in barren New Mexico desert, 13 minutes 45 seconds after he vaulted into the void. Guess you can say this guy had balls of steel… or something because that is really one very impressive jump!
Record breaking 80+ formation. Two jumps were made in an attempt to set a new world record in the parachuting sport of “canopy formation”. The historic 81 and 85 person jumps were planned by a group called CF World Record 2005. The skydivers secured themselves to each other by wrapping their feet around the lines of the parachutes below them creating this wonderful parachute diamond.
