Felix Baumgartner is an Austrian daredevil whose specialty is jumping from fixed objects and using a parachute to break his fall. His motto is, “Everyone has limits—not everyone accepts them!!!” His willingness to go beyond his limits to fulfill his dreams is inspiring. This EXTRA will inspire you to do the same.
Felix Baumgartner: Exceeding His Limits
On October 14, 2012, Felix Baumgartner became the first man to break the sound barrier without help when he jumped from 24 miles up in the stratosphere. His maximum speed as he fell toward earth was 843 mph! The amazing thing about Felix, other than his incredible free fall, was that when he was five years old, he drew a picture of himself for his mother in which he was dropping out of the sky with a parachute. He wrote underneath the drawing, “I had a dream, and this was it.” Felix said about the drawing that when he did his first skydive in 1986, his mother gave it back to him. “It’s kinda interesting where your thought and vision is going to take you if you are focused and don’t let it loose—no matter how hard it is.” When he was a boy constantly climbed trees and asked friends to throw him up in the air.
Austrian Skydiver Felix Baumgartner
Felix began taking parachute jumping lessons at the age of 16. By the 1990s he felt he had gone as far as he could with traditional skydiving and began BASE jumping, which is parachuting from a fixed object or landform. Felix has set several records in BASE jumping and as jumped from some amazing places, including the tallest building in the world at the time, Taipei 101, and into a 600-foot deep cave. But his goal was to break the free fall jump, which was previously 19 miles above the earth. “All of my life I have been looking for unique goals, things no one has accomplished,” Felix said before the jump from the stratosphere.
Baumgartner had to alter his state and overcome his fears.
The jump wasn’t easy. It took him seven years to train for it, and during that time he would suffer panic attacks because of the claustrophobia he felt when he was locked up inside the pressurized suit and helmet he had to wear on the edge of space. When Felix jumped from the stratosphere, he admitted he was terrified. After he jumped he started tumbling towards earth, and he was afraid he was going to black out. But even though he was terrified and worrying about losing consciousness, he knew he could handle it. Felix thought about aborting his jump, but he said that his choice to go ahead with it was the right decision. After he jumped, he said that he now wanted to “inspire a generation.” Felix is doing that spreading the excitement of his free fall to others. He says that the only thing between a person and their goal is the deceptive story they keep telling themselves that they can’t achieve it. Felix Baumgartner watch his biography and his jump from the stratos
[gravityform id=”3″ name=”Felix Baumgartner Post Question” title=”false” description=”false” ajax=”true”]
How High was Felix Baumgartner when he Jumped from Space?
According to The Felix Baumgartner biography on the Red Bull Stratos,
Baumgartner reached 1,357.64 km/h (843.6 mph) — Mach 1.25 — Baumgartner broke the sound barrier on his descent,[6] thus becoming the first human to do so without any form of engine power.[4][7] Preliminary measurements show Baumgartner also broke two other world records. With a final altitude of 38,969 m (127,851 ft) (23.3884 miles)
Conclusion – Felix Baumgartner Stratos wasn’t Felix Baumgartner’s story amazing? He did a freefall from space! To get to that point, he had to overcome his limitations to do an extraordinary thing. So can you.
