Talk:Joseph Kittinger

Ego problem
During an interview for a television documentary Kittinger said "I did go supersonic" on his freefall. There was no way for him to measure or know whether or not he went supersonic while he was falling. That is for others to determine. Hence, he's just another guy with an ego problem. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.23.53.76 (talk • contribs) 23:16, 16 August 2005 (UTC)


 * The person [user 70.23.53.76] with the first comment obviously does not know Col. Joe Kittinger personally or the details of his experiment. He is very humble, definitely without "an ego problem!"  Additionally, Col. Kittinger had a speedometer strapped to his chest during the fall, measuring his speed throughout. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.62.151.72 (talk • contribs) 02:16, 21 October 2005 (UTC)


 * You're [user 70.23.53.76] the one with the ego problem. The wrong person (Nationality?) made the jump. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.224.119.142 (talk) 23:13, 5 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I agree with the above. I have met Col. Joe Kittinger and flown with him. He has no ego problem. He is honest and truthful, a very down to earth guy, if you'll pardon the pun. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.91.109.241 (talk • contribs) 20:37, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

Misleading syntax
Should "he is remembered" not be changed to "he is best remembered" because the former suggests that his involvement in the two Air Force projects mentioned in the article are the only things he has ever done. (I'm sure his family etc. would suggest otherwise) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.252.128.18 (talk • contribs) 15:11, 26 June 2005 (UTC)

"First Man in Space" claim
The Air Force definition of "space" has never included altitudes as low as that attained by Kittinger (see, eg ), so if he was ever regarded as "First Man in Space" it could only have been by the media. A citation substantiating the latter needs to be provided before this is stated in the entry Robma 07:49, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

Yeager rivalry
Why would he "occasionally rib" Yaeger about being the first supersonic man when Yaeger did it in 1947? If his drops were in '59-60 then that part doesn't make any sense. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2006 67.149.53.120 (talk • contribs) 06:32, 10 August (UTC)


 * COL Kittinger would rib Yeager because he achieved supersonic speed without benefit of engines, making him the first truly "supersonic man". Interest is being revived in  Kittinger's feat because of Michel Fournier's attempt to break his records for highest, fastest and longest freefall, and also balloon altitude. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 165.2.186.10 (talk • contribs) 17:34, 16 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Yeager did it in an airplane--Kittinger was the first "man" to do so--sans airplane. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Buckboard (talk • contribs) 09:03, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Speed of sound
I'm not sure, but isn't the speed of sound slower at higher altitudes? If so perhaps he broke the sound barrier at higher altitude, even though at sea level he would've been going slower than sound. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Uberfruk (talk • contribs) 06:01, 16 August 2006 (UTC)


 * &quot;The standard value of the speed of sound in air at 31,000 m is 300 m/s (670 mph).&quot; Source: hypertextbook.com/facts/JianHuang.shtml — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.64.99.52 (talk • contribs) 18:25, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

He did not break the sound barrier during his descent. Please take the data given in the US standard atmosphere and do some simple math or read the discussion in Felix Baumgartner's article.178.115.248.77 (talk) 11:08, 22 November 2012 (UTC)

Length of free-fall?
On the USAF website, it states he free-falled for only 4.5 minutes, not over 13 minutes, in his record jump.

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=1114

Dividing 20 miles by 0.2 hrs (12 min) is only 100 mph, is that correct? If it were in 1/3 the time the average speed would be 3 times as great. Is there another source for the 13 minute time? --kris 23:32, 6 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Someone made an edit to the page changing the top speed of the famous fall from 714 to 614MPH. The given citation, which is archived, does not support this change. However, the 614 number is supported by the page at http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=1114, which kris helpfully linked above. Someone will need to clean this up, eventually. --Markzero 09:22, 12 May 2007 (UTC)


 * In his own words, his top speed was 614 mph. Please read the Life and National Geographic articles written in 1960. The Life article is here …

http://mlsandy.home.tsixroads.com/Corinth_MLSANDY/jk004.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.64.99.52 (talk • contribs) 18:31, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

Prather and Ross
Did the jump by Victor Prather and Malcolm Ross (balloonist) break Kittinger's record? Should this be mentioned in the article? Carcharoth 14:46, 13 May 2007 (UTC)


 * They just got to a higher altitude with the balloon, I don't see anywhere mentioned they jumped from the balloon. JH-man 12:59, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

Award - April 3, 2008
"'Joseph Kittinger Will Receive the Air and Space Museum's Highest Honor Today'" http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/AsSeenOnGMA/story?id=4580672&page=1 218.215.60.227 (talk) 13:29, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Terminal velocity
First, 988km/h is 614mph, so the current description is self-contradictory. Second, which is the source for 714mph? The point of discussion is well described at http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/aerodynamics/q0243.shtml. The bottom line is, if we begin to doubt National Museum of the USAF website numbers, we are too far. The number of 614mph seems to be quite decent. — Shimada22 (talk • contribs) 23:50, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Stratosphere jump
Kittinger's Record Jump was 102,800 feet (31,300 m), right? So that altitude is somewhere in the middle of the Stratosphere layer. Yet in the video, it looked more like he was in the Mesosphere layer or even near the edge of space. That kinda surprised me because the video made it look like he was in danger of atmospheric reentry. — Arima (talk) 01:13, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

Rope torture?
In the section about Captain Kittinger's Vietnam service, it says: Kittinger was put through "rope torture" soon after his arrival at the POW compound and this made a lasting impression on him. Could this be clarified? K8 fan (talk) 16:45, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Its self explanatory - they used the rope on him — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:647:5A00:C160:1997:1B3E:957D:42E4 (talk) 09:48, 5 December 2019 (UTC)

Video of his free fall
I don't know how to implement this into the page, but on other pages where there are "references in popular culture", you could include that footage from Col. Kittinger's jump is used in the Boards of Canada video for "Dayvan Cowboy". It's a great song with a fair amount of footage from Kittinger's jump, including when he exited the gondola. You can see it on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrBZeWjGjl8  Edit:  Yep, here's the wiki page for the video for Dayvan Cowboy, ironically using the same screenshot picture of Col. Kittinger as used on his own page here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayvan_Cowboy — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.88.204.20 (talk) 20:01, 9 June 2011 (UTC)

Holding the records?
The intro says Kittinger holds "the records for having the highest, fastest and longest skydive", but since his accomplishment was never submitted to the FAI, (the governing body for air sports and aeronautics and astronautics) and was never recognised by the FAI, how can he be said to hold these records? Can we find a way to say that he jumped from the highest altitude ever (and the other things), without saying that he holds the record for the highest jump? --212.139.244.241 (talk) 11:42, 13 October 2012 (UTC)

Most of the Baumgartner section
Everything after the third sentence of the section on Colonel Kittinger helping Felix Baumgartner needs to go. The extra info has nothing to do with Kittinger and since this is his article and not that of the mission's, it is pointless including it here. --Sephiroth9611 (talk) 22:37, 14 October 2012 (UTC)

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Role of Drogue Shoot in Free Fall Record
I A) Watched the Baumgartner Video and B) came here from there to read Kittinger, trying to resolve how Baumgartner broke the altitude record but apparently did not break the Free Fall time record. Read this article and the only indicator to explain how Baumgartner could fall from a higher distance but not break the Free Fall time record is that Kittinger had a drogue shoot, which may have slowed his "free fall" decent. But that makes me wonder if it's fair to describe what Kittenger did as "free fall", given that he had a drogue shoot. Either way, as a Reader I'd appreciate it the Articles on both of these men and their accomplishments could clarify these points/questions.2605:6000:6947:AB00:ED9A:618F:109D:5E4 (talk) 14:50, 17 September 2018 (UTC)

The first man to fully witness the curvature of the earth?
The lead says "[...] the first man to fully witness the curvature of the earth" but I can't see this mentioned anywhere in the main text? JezGrove (talk) 12:28, 18 September 2020 (UTC)
 * I see the Arthur W. Murray article makes the same claim about Murray and includes a reference, too. JezGrove (talk) 17:15, 18 September 2020 (UTC)

Grave
This site says he was going to be interned at Arlington national cemetery. As far as I can tell, they have no record of his interment and there is no photo of his grave anywhere to be found. Do we know this burial actually happened? Thornfield Hall (talk) 04:52, 26 June 2023 (UTC)