At approximately 4.30pm British time, Felix began his journey to become a living legend by breaking the sound barrier with a death-defying 128,000ft skydive above the New Mexico desert...for the second time. Last Tuesday's attempt was postponed due to strong wind but today's wind speed was good, so it was all systems go.
To get to the required height, Felix sat in a capsule strapped to a balloon that then inflated and took him into space. It was a bit like the Pixar film, Up, only Felix isn't an OAP and he wasn't in a house attached to balloons. On reflection, it's nothing at all like the movie, Up.
Once the balloon reached a height of 36,500m, Felix jumped back down to earth. By comparison, a plane flies at just 14,000m. The technical term for this height is 'bloody high'. Although it took approximately two-and-a-half hours to ascend to the jump height, it took just 4-minutes 19 seconds for Felix to descend to earth. Still, that's an awfully long time to excitedly shout, "Whhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
As there was no air to cushion his fall, after about 35 seconds of freefall Felix reached a speed of approximately 706mph. In other words, he become the first human to break the speed of sound.* Not according to Neighbourhood Watch Bore John McJohnson though, who said, "To be honest, I don't think Felix was the first. My wife's already done it. I'm not saying she talks fast but she was telling me off for supposedly looking at another woman as we walked along the main road earlier and a speed camera went off. I rest my case."
Good try Mr McJonhson but we think your record's safe, Felix.
*subject to verification from the people whose job it is to verify such things
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