Felix Baumgartner
Felix Baumgartner ( born April 20, 1969 in Salzburg) is an Austrian former base jumper and extreme sports. Gained world fame Felix Baumgartner to the stratosphere jump " Red Bull Stratos".
Life
Baumgartner served an apprenticeship as a machinist and then worked as a car mechanic. At age 18, he signed up for five years for the Austrian army. He was trained as a tank driver and later served as an instructor and paratroopers in the Army Sports and melee School (now Jagdkommando ) in Wiener Neustadt. Since he had problems with his own words, to submit to and obey " silly orders ", he was classified as militarily inappropriate and dismissed from the army. Also in Wiener Neustadt, he joined a boxing club and completed on 8 May 1992, a professional fight against the Croat Dinko Porobija he KOs defeated in round 1.
In 1996, after training by Tracy Lee Walker in Bavaria, on Bridge Day, his first object jump from the New River Gorge Bridge. Since then, Baumgartner made over 2600 parachute jumps - including 130 object jumps.
Since 1997 Baumgartner is a professional BASE jumper, since he is sponsored by Red Bull. The kick-off was the title for best overall performance at Bridge Day 1997. Baumgartner reached this item in West Virginia to 350 participants.
His registration with the United States BASE Association in 1998 showed the number 502, which he made to a registered trademark of Baumgartner for him: the logo with the flame and the Number 5.0.2. Each diver, all four object types (BASE = Building [ building ] Antenna [ Antenna ], Span [ Bridge] and Earth [ cliffs ] ) is jump proven, may request such a number in the American Association. There are now over a thousand numbers assigned.
After his stratospheric jump on 14 October 2012 ( see below ) announced Baumgartner to retire with immediate effect from the extreme sports. He wants to be every six months working as a rescue helicopter pilot in the Alps and in California in the future.
Baumgartner lives in Arbon, Switzerland.
Jumps
On 15 April 1999, he jumped from the 88th floor of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. For that he had observed the building for days, spied out the security personnel and as a businessman dressed gives access to the building. The parachute with which he jumped from a window cleaning crane, he had smuggled in a briefcase.
On 7 December 1999, he jumped at 7:00 local time clock from the right arm of the statue of Christ on Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro with the parachute. Previously, he had grown to include on the site, then he climbed up on to a shot with a crossbow rope.
On 2 March 2003, he climbed together with Günter Karnutsch the east wall of the 2,950 m high Sass Pordoi in Italy and jumped out from the summit by parachute from. This was the first joint project of these two extreme athletes.
On 1 June 2003 Baumgartner led the main stunt for the third Taurus World Stunt Awards in Hollywood by. Equipped with a carbon wing, he organized a betting flying against a 368 kW Pilatus Porter - propeller machine. The flight itself took place in Utah over Lake Powell. Baumgartner won the race with a reached top speed of 240 km / h
On 31 July 2003 Baumgartner crossed the first man to glide the English Channel from Dover to Calais. He jumped in 9800 meters above sea level, (temperature -52 ° C ) from a Skyvan, wearing an oxygen mask, an insulating special suit and a wing made of carbon fibers with 1.8 meter wingspan. The 34- kilometer route he lay back with a top speed of 360 km / h in 6 minutes and 22 seconds. The aircraft used in this jump, then still called experimental SkyRay (german sky = sky, ray = rays), and is now developed as a military weapon system under the English name Gryphon ( Griffin ). At an altitude of 1200 meters Baumgartner opened his parachute and landed at Cap Blanc -Nez near Calais, although the competent authority in France prohibited the landing there.
Felix Baumgartner jumped on June 27, 2004 by the highest with 343 meters bridge in the world, the Millau Viaduct. An object jump on 10 September 2004 from the 108 meter high bridge Puente de las Americas, which connects North and South America, led to a brief imprisonment in Panama. Also in 2004, he jumped into the 190 meter deep bottle-shaped cave shaft in the Mamethöhle Velebit (Croatia).
On 18 August 2006 he jumped from the Turning Torso in Malmo, Sweden, the tallest with a height of 190 meters building in Scandinavia. The jump was a jump from a helicopter ahead with spot landing on the roof of the building. According to his website Baumgartner fled after the jump by motorcycle and speed boat to Denmark.
On 11 December 2007 he jumped clock 16:18 (local time) of the 390.2 -meter-high observation platform outside the 91st floor of the 508 meter high skyscraper Taipei 101 in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. The parachute was smuggled on the eve of a Taiwanese friend to the Security and hidden by Baumgartner in the ceiling covering the toilet the visitor platform. Baumgartner landed on a parking garage, disappeared in traffic Taipei and left two hours after the jump by plane the country towards Hong Kong.
More cracks
- 2001: jump from the 120 m high cliff of Meteora
- 2003: jump from 140 m height of the Millennium Tower in Vienna, the tallest building in Austria
- 2004: jump from a 59 m high bridge over the Corinth Canal
- 2006: jump of 225 m height of the Torre Mayor in Mexico City, the tallest building in Mexico
- 2007: jump in the 120 m deep cave chamber Majlis al Jinn in Oman
Jump from the stratosphere
Baumgartner rose on 14 October 2012 by the Walker Air Force Base in Roswell, New Mexico ( USA) with a helium balloon in a pressure capsule into the stratosphere to jump off with protective suit and parachute. After the jump, he handed three key figures in the FAI for recognition as a world record:
- The highest 38969.4 m with jump parachuting. This record was previously held with 31 333 m of Joseph Kittinger. Kittinger set the record on 16 August 1960 as part of the Excelsior project.
- The deepest with 36402.6 m free fall. This record was previously held with 24,500 m of Yevgeny Andreyev, who set it in 1962 Volsk.
- The with 1357.6 km / h reached in the largest free fall speed without stabilization screen. The previous record of 864 km / h had set up in July 2012 Baumgartner.
Others
To the question " Is a change in the policy of an option for your future? " Baumgartner was on 27 October 2012 in an interview with the Austrian Kleine Zeitung, referring to the " example Arnold Schwarzenegger " that he did not go into politics wanted. The example Schwarzenegger he had seen that one " move anything in a democracy " could and called for " a moderate dictatorship " under the leadership of a "few people [n ] from the private sector '.
Felix Baumgartner was nominated along with four other persons as a possible winner of the Arosa Humor blade 2012, a jury award of the Arosa Humour Festival.
November 6, 2012 Baumgartner has been convicted of injury to a fine of 1500 euros. The reason was a blow against a Greek truck drivers in 2010.
Awards
- 2012: Bambi ( in the category of "Millennium" )
- 2013: Laureus World Sports Award ( in the category Action Sportsperson of the Year )