posted 03-19-2023 05:29 AM               

Space Cover 693: Joe Kittinger

Above is a cover postmarked at Alamagordo, New Mexico on Aug. 16, 2000, the 40th anniversary of Joe Kittinger's most publicized contribution to high altitude flight – parachuting from a balloon 102,800 feet up (almost 20 miles). By doing so, he demonstrated that pilots of high altitude planes and astronauts going to/from space could survive high altitude bailouts. During his free-fall from that altitude, Kittinger actually fell faster than the speed of sound! This was one of a number of high-altitude balloon flights and jumps that Kittinger performed.

Retired USAF Col. Joseph Kittinger II became interested in flight as a child and had soloed in a Piper Cub by age 17. He entered the Air Force in 1949 as an aviation cadet. He was commissioned and sent to Germany to fly F-84 and F-86 fighter planes.

In 1954 he was transferred to Holloman AFB near Alamogordo, New Mexico to support the aeromedical research being done by Dr. John Stapp. Kittinger flew as the airborne chase pilot during Stapp's famous rocket sled rides, impressing Dr. Stapp with his piloting ability. Stapp then recruited Kittinger to fly in a number of research projects, including the refinement of airplane parabolic trajectories that would mimic zero-gravity (then called "sub-gravity"), commonly used in later years by NASA and commercial entities (also known as "vomit comet" flights!). Below is a cover that he carried on one such flight in an F-94C fighter plane in 1958:

After leaving Holloman, Kittinger went on to fly three combat tours in Viet Nam, shooting down one MiG and being shot down himself. He spent 11 months in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" POW camp. I remember a talk he gave where he said the only thing that kept him sane during his captivity was that he constantly thought-through the details of how he would implement a solo around-the-world balloon flight if given the chance (this was long before Steve Fossett actually did that). He retired from the Air Force in 1978, and served as the cool voice-of-experience "capcom" for Felix Baumgartner's high altitude parachute jump in 2012 that broke Kittinger's record. Joe Kittinger passed away on December 9. 2022.

posted 03-26-2023 11:20 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by bobslittlebro:
The photo sure looks like Scott Carpenter.

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posted 03-26-2023 12:02 PM               

When Col. Kittinger was manager of Rosie O'Grady's Flying Circus in Orlando, FL, we first met during the 1980's while on a visit there. He was kind enough to autograph some of my Kittinger-related covers and other material.