His flight was not without some malfunctions though, the heater in his visor was not working and caused his helmet to fog up. At one point Felix was tumbling barely in control of his orientation and descent.

179.8 g’s involuntarily (brief deceleration), and 46.2 g’s (sustained deceleration) voluntarily.

[quote]At a standard belly-to-earth, or even back-to-earth position, an experience jumper can do a surprisingly good job of not drifting too far.”[/quote]

Capt. Kittinger dove in a standing position, due to his drogue chute.

As the sign under the entrance to the gondola says, “This is the highest step in the world.”

While several sites give the 614 mph value used in this article, the official USAF site at http://www.af.mil/history/person.asp?dec=&pid=123006518 states “Kittinger fell at speeds up to 714 mph, exceeding the speed of sound.” This is echoed by the Stratocat site at http://stratocat.com.ar/fichas-e/1960/HMN-19600816.htm.

joe said: “what ever happend to the frenchman who was to counter this record?”

The French parachutist Michel Fournier has a website about his plan to break Kittinger’s records at http://www.legrandsaut.org/ where he indicates that he will be attempting the jump again in 2007. The August 2006 attempt was called off for financial reasons after Fournier was the victim of fraud.