Fall 714 miles per hour?
Captain Kittinger "reached a record speed of 614 miles per hour" while falling over 16 miles from a balloon in 1960, at Tularosa, New Mexico. That is what I, George Ostrom, said in this very column last week. Ironically, the Wall Street Journal has just done a story on falling and in there they state Kittinger hit 714 miles per hour on his famous jump and thus became "the first person to break the sound barrier without a vehicle." I hope the Wall Street Journal is right and I was wrong on that 100 miles per hour difference. We'll see.
The point of the Journal's article is simple, "No human has fallen farther than Joe Kittinger, but people keep trying." That means the Australian mentioned in my column never succeeded; however there is a Frenchman, Michel Fournier, who is trying even though he is now 61 years old. Fournier has made himself destitute forming the team and getting the equipment he needs. The story says, "…he retired in 1992 to pursue the plunge. He has since amassed 12 million in gear—and impoverished himself…selling his house, antique furniture, gun collection and all."
His biggest problem has been the French Government, which stalled him for six years. Their latest concern is about "safety on the ground." Now Fournier is working at making the big dive from a base at the little town of North Battleford, Saskatchewan…hopefully this May. I sorta fantasized about joining him until I read this paragraph:
"Belly-flopping from the edge of space (25 miles up) isn't just an incredibly long parachute ride. At 40,000 feet, altitude conditions turn deadly. The atmosphere is so thin unprotected people loose consciousness in around 12 seconds. Even with an air supply, nitrogen bubbles may form in the blood and soft tissue. The situation gets worse fast when you get above 50,000." I ain't goin'.
Fournier is not new to falling through space. He has over 8,500 sky dives to his credit, including one above 39,000 feet.
The Journal says after Col. Kittinger broke all the falling records those many years ago, he flew 483 missions in Viet Nam before being shot down in 1972 and spending 11 months in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton." He is retired now but still flies his own open cockpit airplane. He has talked to Michel Fournier and told him, "Space is hostile." Regarding his unbelievable "falling record" he says, "There are lots of wannabes, but there aren't many Michel Fournier's."
Yes! There are some fine honest attorneys in all modern societies including ours, but as we all know, there are also some real doozies out there. Just to show we don't have all the looney tune lawyers here in America, let me tell you about one down in Christ Church, New Zealand.
In January, a man by the name of Clinton Dearman was being sentenced in the courts there for burglary and assault. It had been proven in court that Dearman was caught while burglarizing a group of senior citizens. The old folks were not happy with the guy stealing their stuff so they ganged up on him, beat the hell out of him, then hog-tied him and took his picture while waiting for the police.
At the sentencing, Dearman's lawyer pleaded with the judge to show great sympathy toward his client. He said the photo taken of Dearman by the seniors had ended up in the newspapers, thus making him a laughing stock among the other prisoners. The plea ended with the lawyer telling the judge that his client would "never again be able to hold up his head in criminal company again."
I've got to end this column right here. There are tears running into my old keyboard.