'God of the Skies' Makes Channel Crossing

[Kellanved]

LONDON (Reuters) - An Austrian stuntman on Thursday became the first person to skydive across the English Channel, free falling at 124 miles per hour in the process.

Felix Baumgartner jumped out of a plane at 29,500 feet above Dover, England, wearing a specially constructed carbon wing and flew toward France before parachuting into hills above the port of Calais.

"I made it which is great," he told reporters on landing.

"It's pretty cold up there. I still can feel nothing," said the self-styled "God of the Skies," who started parachuting as a teenager before taking up the extreme sport of BASE jumping.
...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=757&e=5&u=/nm/20030731/od_nm/odd_britain_skydiver_dc

Edit: Pictures
http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,282136,00.jpg http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,282142,00.jpg

[commander bunnypants]

1. Sounds like a blast

DEMMAN

[FlashHarry]

2. Wake me when he crosses the Atlantic.

Wasn't he wearing some sort of carbon-fibre wing? Is that really 'sky-diving?'

[Kellanved]

3. I don't know

But that would have been a suit for a carrier landing.

[FlashHarry]

4. Those look like stills from an 80s TV show!

"Greatest American Hero" or something. Either that, or it's lost footage from "Inframan!"

[dfong63]

5. oh no!

irrefutable secret evidence shows Iraq had a development program for carbon wings as a delivery vehicle for anthrax and plague! comic books showing "flying martyrs" were found in Uday's briefcase, along with all the porn and viagra. high-level weapons experts say saddam could have had a working "carbon wing" program within 45 minutes.

[Braden]

6. to infinity and beyond!

[TrogL]

7. What, no underwear?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3112095.stm

He wore only an aerodynamic jumpsuit with a 6-foot (1.8-metre) carbon fin strapped to his back, an oxygen tank from which to breathe, and a parachute to land.

Where was he last night?

But then again, it might save on laundry bills or avoid getting the Royal Order of the Wet Diaper.