A 34-YEAR-OLD Austrian become the first person to skydive across the English Channel yesterday, and immediately promised “bigger and better” stunts.
Felix Baumgartner jumped out of an aircraft 9,100m (30,000ft) above Dover just after 5am yesterday and glided 22 miles across the Channel on 6ft carbon-fibre wings. He landed at Cap Blanc Nez, near Calais, just over six minutes later.
The former mechanic and army drill sergeant said: “I felt like a bird. It’s total freedom. At this altitude it’s perfect with the sunrise at the beginning of the day. I have been preparing myself for three years for just this day.”
The cloud cover meant that he could not see where he was going and had to follow his two support aircraft across the Channel, he said. “But for the last 2,000 metres I could see the other side and I knew I was going to make it.”
The mission was named Icarus II, but his wings, designed by scientists from the University of Applied Science in Munich and weighing less than 4.5kg (10lb), proved far more reliable than those of his mythical Greek predecessor. The wings formed part of his suit, which contained a parachute and oxygen cylinder to help with high-altitude breathing.
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Nonetheless, the flight up and the jump were not without complications. During the initial ascent before the jump his cameraman passed out through lack of oxygen. Then, on leaving the aircraft, his legs became tangled in the glider, forcing him to cut the wing into pieces.
He dropped to Earth through temperatures of minus 40C at an initial speed of 250mph, before using the wings to slow to 135mph.
When he tried to open his parachute at 1,000ft he was jerked backwards and again his leg was caught in a line, forcing him to take emergency action, cutting off a piece of the parachute.
The emergency services had been put on standby in case he crashed into the sea. But none of this had deterred Herr Baumgartner, who has already jumped from the statue of Christ the Redeemer that overlooks Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and was the first man to parachute from the world’s tallest building, the Petronas Towers in Malaysia.
He said that he had even bigger jumps with wings planned in the near future. “This was my biggest project so far, but there’s still something left, so don’t worry. It’s top secret, but it’s going to be awesome,” he said.
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Waiting on the ground was his girlfriend, Katjuschka Altmann, 27, a German sports TV presenter. She said: “I couldn’t sleep last night, but I never doubted he could do it.”