When I was growing up, the world was making the transistion from propeller driven aircraft to jets and to spacecraft.

Two of the pioneers that added to the body of knowledge that advanced the science of flight were Lieutenant Colonel John P. Stapp, M.D., USAF, and Captain Joseph W. Kittinger, USAF. 

 

Colonel Stapp was a flight surgeon at Holloman in New Mexico in the late 1940's and early 1950's.  The new jets of the day were pushing the envolope of manned flight and Stapp was interested in human physiology.  More precisely, he wanted to research the body's reaction to acceleration, deceleration, and high speed wind blast.  The testing device for this study was a rocket sled manned by human volunteers -- and Stapp was one of those volunteers. 

 

The device for this kind of testing was a rocket sled.  The first run of the sled in late 1948 was not auspicious -- it ran off the tracks and crashed.  The bugs were worked out and the sled was made to stay on its tracks.  Beginning in August 1949 and concuding on 8 June 1951, Stapp made a total of 29 trips on the sled to become the "fastest man on earth" at the time.  Some of the tests were done with the subject's back to the deceleration and then the subjects were turned around.   Stapp's work resulted in an upgrade to fighter pilots seat ratings to 32g acceleration.  Stapp himself held the record for a 45.4g deceleration in which the blood vessels in his eyes burst.  (In later years, this damage caused him visual impairment.) 

 

Stapp also investigated windblast effects on pilots.  Sitting in a cockpit with an no canopy, he experienced a 570 mph slipstream without ill effect.  After the experiments at Holloman AFB, Stapp went on to work for the Aerospace Medical Research Lab at Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio.  Stapp was one of the originators behind Project MAN HIGH and its follow-on Project EXCELSIOR.  These projects were designed to test life support and high altitude bail out survivability.  One of his recruits to the program was a young Captain, Joseph W. Kittinger.

 

Project MAN HIGH was an interim program based around a mylar envelope, helium-filled balloon.  Suspended below the balloon was a small, doorless, gondola with a life support system.  The jumper sat erect in this small aluminum shell and was lifted to high altitude by the balloon's expanding helium gas.

 

The balloon was filled and launched from a quarry in the early morning hours when winds were very light or not at all.  On his first attempt, Kittinger rode his balloon to 96,760 feet in 1957.  For his pioneering work in the advancement of aerospace medicine, Kittinger was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC).  Project EXCELSIOR was the follow-on to MAN HIGH.  Kittinger made three jumps as part of EXCELSIOR. 

 

On the first jump in November 1959, he reached an altitude of 76,400 feet and had a near fatal failure of his oxygen equipment while he was in free fall.  He survived a flat spin at 120 mph and was saved by the automatic opening feature of his parachute.  On his second jump, Kittinger lept from 74,700 feet, but the last and most famous jump was next to come.

 

On 16 August 1960, Captain Joseph W. Kittinger rode the gondola of his balloon to a record 102,800 feet.  Kittinger was in free fall for 4 minutes and 36 seconds before his chute automatically opened at 18,000 feet.  During the free fall he attained a speed of 614 mph.  On the way down, his pressure suit suffered a failure of its system for his right hand glove and his hand swelled up to about three times normal size.  Fortunately no permanent damage was done.  For his exceptional flight and record parachute jump, Captain Kittinger was awarded an Oak Leaf Cluster to his DFC by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

 

Men like these were my heroes as a kid and many of us, myself included, wanted to be men like them.