Michel Fournier (adventurer)

Michel Fournier ( born May 4, 1944 in Tréban, France ) is a French test pilot and parachutist.

After a long career as a paratrooper in the French army 1986, he was selected after the Challenger disaster, for a test program of the French government, which was to investigate the effect of parachute jumps from a great height on the human organism, such as the rescue of astronauts from spaceships. End of the eighties began discussions on the exit of the ESA from the development of a European space shuttle (Hermes, took place in 1992 ), at the same time the test program Fournier of the French Government was set.

Since Fournier operates the program at their own expense itself, but with the support of well-known French space experts such as the former astronaut Jean -François Clervoy and the known science journalist Michel Chevalet. He says that he has already put more than 12.7 million euros in the project, which he has denied from private sponsors and from its own assets.

It is planned to rise to a helium balloon at 40,000 m ( stratosphere ), the subsequent jump ( jump stratosphere ) in a pressure suit in freefall and manual triggering of the parachute in about 3000 m altitude. In case of emergency (if the jumper loses consciousness ) a parachute is released in about 1000 m altitude.

The goal of the project " Le Grand Saut " ( The Great Leap ) is to break several records at the same time:

• The height of the jump in freefall record (previous record holder: Joseph Kittinger, August 16, 1960, 31333 m)
• The altitude record of a manned balloon ascent ( previous record holder: Malcolm D. Ross and Victor A. Prather Jr., May 4, 1961 34668 m)
• The time record and track record of the jump in free fall (previous record holder Evgeny Andreev, November 1, 1962)
• The speed record of the jump in free fall ( Kittinger reached almost the speed of sound, Fournier is expected to reach Mach 1.5)

After two unsuccessful attempts in 2002 and 2003 and over a 5 year break failed, the third record attempt on May 27, 2008. The ascent balloon went about to start automatically when the trigger mechanism for the capsule lit on the ground. The balloon disappeared without Fournier's capsule in the sky and was later found about 40 km from the launch site damaged. Fournier was planning to make another attempt in August 2008. Due to continued unresolved financial problems it is currently unclear whether the company will ever take place can.

Similar record attempts are or have been prepared by the British stuntman Steve Truglia and the Austrian base jumper Felix Baumgartner. Baumgartner led his trial on 14 October 2012 as part of the Red Bull Stratos project, and was able to break several records.