Joseph Kittinger
United States Air Force officer
Died when: 94 years 135 days (1132 months)Star Sign: Leo
Colonel Joseph William Kittinger II (born July 27, 1928) was a retired officer in the United States Air Force (USAF) and a Command Pilot.
His initial operational assignment was in fighter aircraft, then he participated in the Project Manhigh and Project Excelsior high-altitude balloon flight projects from 1956 to 1960 and was the first man to fully witness the curvature of the Earth.
He set a world record for the highest skydive: 102,800 feet (31.3 km) on August 16, 1960.As a fighter pilot during the Vietnam War, Kittinger shot down a North Vietnamese MiG-21 jet fighter.
He was later shot down himself, spending 11 months as a prisoner of war in a North Vietnamese prison until he was repatriated in 1973.
In 1984, he was also the first man to make a solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in a gas balloon.
In 2012, Kittinger participated in the Red Bull Stratos project as capsule communicator at age 84, directing Felix Baumgartner on his 24-mile (39 km) freefall from Earth's stratosphere, which broke Kittinger's own 53-year-old record.
Baumgartner's record would be broken two years later by Alan Eustace.
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United States Air Force officer
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