Who2 Editorial Blog

Notes and Commentary from the Editors

Monday, May 26, 2008

High Dive With a Twist

Today Frenchman Michel Fournier plans to wake up in Saskatchewan, put on a pressure suit, climb into a capsule the size of a phone booth, hitch it to a balloon the size of two football fields, float up to an altitude four times higher than the cruising altitude of a commercial airliner... and jump out.

The result will be the first new record in high-altitude parachuting in 48 years. (The planned height is 40,000 meters, or about 131,000 feet.) Fournier calls it Le Grand Saut, or 'The Big Leap.'

The Globe and Mail has more details on the leap, plus a nice backgrounder on Fournier.

[UPDATE: Delayed by high winds.]

[UPDATE 2: Seriously delayed.]

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 4:27 AM

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