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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Freefall To History,
By
This review is from: The Long, Lonely Leap (Hardcover)
The Long, Lonely Leap is long overdue for a reprint. An excellent read, it is the first person account of the US Air Force Manhigh and Excelsior projects, which attempted to define and find a satisfactory escape system from exteme altitude. The book is very informative considering the project was conducted with a modicum of secrecy. The personal protection the author and test subject, USAF Capt Joseph Kittinger, wore was state of the art and therefore highly proprietory. Kittinger also flew to altitude in an open gondola relying entirely on his partial pressure suit. This was very daring at the time as all high altitude ascents (the pricipal players being the US and USSR) were conducted in pressurized gondolas.
The book may still be found in the stacks of the more secure libraries.(And an excerpt can be found in the National Geographic magazine of the period.) Informative, exciting and astounding, I think the book owes some of its edge to co-author Martin Caidin. There are several photographs. The best of which depicts Kittinger only a hearbeat after departing his gondola for the Earth 103,000 feet below. Well worth reading.
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