Word: stapp
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Later flights will be made by scientists skilled in scientific observation, but for the experimental and risky first flight, Space Surgeon Stapp (TIME, Sept. 12, 1955) wanted a young man with quick, trained reflexes and elastic endurance to cope with emergencies. "I didn't want much," says Stapp. "Just the sharpest pilot I ever met." Kittinger, the man selected, already knew his way in the air. He was an F-100 pilot with 3,600 jet hours, but Stapp had him take special training for ten months. He qualified as a balloon pilot, also got a paratrooper...
...more than five hours Kittinger sat on his nylon mesh seat chatting with Stapp and the scientists by radio, while they watched the readings of instruments that monitored his pulse, breathing and heartbeat. As everything was checked and rechecked for the start of the flight, Kittinger kept reporting, "No sweat. No sweat." Stapp says: "His heartbeats were more regular than the beats of those who monitored them...
Familiar Shape. Part way up, the radio voice transmitter failed. Kittinger could hear the voices of Stapp and the scientists, but he had to send his reports in slow code. This took nearly all of his time, so he had little time left for sightseeing. The sky grew very dark blue, but he saw no stars or planets. A great shape below looked vaguely familiar. Suddenly he realized that he was seeing the whole of Lake Michigan, 307 miles long...
...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...
...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," said Stapp, "had turned grey...