Word: balloon
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...learned to fly in three weeks, triumphantly tested his theory in person. Summoned by Churchill early in World War II ("He could decipher signals from the experts on the far horizon, and explain to me in lucid, homely terms what the issues were"), he had a hand in the balloon barrage, setting up the radar screen, and counter-measures for magnetic mines. In Churchill's second premiership he served (1951-53) as adviser on all atomic programs...
While Kittinger was being denitrogenized, the balloon was lying flat and limp on South St. Paul's Fleming Field. An Air Force crew turned helium into it, and bit by bit a bubble of plastic reared upward. At last the balloon, as tall as a 25-story building, was standing upright in the still early-morning air. At 6:27 a.m., it took off. Kittinger, his heartbeat still steady, radioed "Goodbye, cruel world...
...balloon rose almost vertically, swelling toward its full 2,000,000 cu. ft. as the pressure diminished. Kittinger kept reading over the radio an endless succession of instruments, stealing a glance once in a while through one of the six portholes. The sky was turning a darker blue, and Minnesota below him was fading to a featureless grey...
...balloon reached 96,000 ft. in 78 minutes. "There I was," cracks Pilot Kittinger, "at 96,000, stalled out but not dropping." The original plan had been for him to make a twelve-hour flight, but an oxygen leak developed, and Colonel Stapp, who was following by helicopter, decided that Kittinger should start down after 2½ hours. Otto Winzen, maker of the balloon, relayed the decision. Kittinger replied in code that he would not come down. Winzen pleaded. Back from 18 miles overhead came the coded answer: "Come and get me." Stapp and Winzen were afraid that hypoxia (lack...
...start down, Kittinger released a calculated quantity of helium. Slowly the great balloon sank toward the earth. Kittinger could not see the surface that he might hit, so airplane pilots circling below him talked him down, telling him when to drop a little ballast to keep in the air until he had cleared all dangerous obstacles. At last the gondola settled into the shallow water of Indian Creek 80 miles from its take-off place. Colonel Stapp jumped out of his helicopter and unlatched the gondola's cover. Kittinger stepped out grinning. "Not a red hair of his head...