• US air force colonel and parachute jump world record holder.
• Unbroken record of jumping 32 kilometres in 1960.
• After being shot down over Vietnam, he spent 11 months in a Hanoi prison.

World record breaking US parachute jumper  Joseph Kittinger died at age 94. According to Joseph Kittinger, he could only hear himself “breathing in the helmet” while falling to Earth at a speed of more than 600 mph.

Joseph Kittinger, a retired colonel in the US air force and holder of the parachute jump world record, passed away at age 94.

After leaping from a height of over 20 miles (32 km) above the Earth in 1960, Kittinger established a world record that remained unbroken for more than 50 years.

Former US representative John Mica and Kittinger’s other acquaintances confirmed his death, which was caused by lung cancer.

After successfully making three jumps from a gondola that had been lifted into the atmosphere by massive helium balloons, the former air force captain and pilot achieved global celebrity.

The 10 month-long jumps were a part of Project Excelsior, which aimed to assist in the development of ejection systems for military pilots performing high-altitude missions.

In November 1959, Kittinger narrowly avoided dying during the project’s initial jump. He jumped from 14.5 miles, wearing a pressure suit and 60 lbs (27 kg) of equipment, however his equipment broke down (23km).

He was saved when his automatic parachute released after going into a spin with 22 times the force of gravity and lost consciousness.

There were no issues with his second leap, which took place four weeks later at a height of 14 miles (22 km).

In the desert of New Mexico in August 1960, Kittinger made his record jump. He was descending at a speed of almost 600 mph and his parachute was deployed at a height of 18,000 feet (19 miles, 31.3 kilometres) (5.5km).

Speaking in 2011 to Florida Trend magazine, he said: “There’s no way you can visualize the speed. There’s nothing you can see to see how fast you’re going. You have no depth perception.

“If you’re in a car driving down the road and you close your eyes, you have no idea what your speed is. It’s the same thing if you’re free falling from space. There are no signposts. You know you are going very fast, but you don’t feel it. You don’t have a 614mph wind blowing on you.

“I could only hear myself breathing in the helmet.”

Kittinger conducted three tours of duty in the Vietnam War after the jump. He was shot down over north Vietnam in May 1972, and after being taken prisoner, he was held in a Hanoi prisoner of war camp for 11 months.

His record held until 2012, when Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner leaped from a plane that was 38.6 kilometres (24 miles) above the desert of New Mexico while travelling at 844 miles per hour. Kittinger provided guidance for the world record jump.

After leaving the air force in 1978, he moved to Orlando, Florida, where he established himself as a local legend. His wife Sherri is left behind.

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