The Victorians who flew higher than jets

[seeder]

Didnt know where else to put this....but back in those days it was a new technology, sort of, and I enjoyed the article... someone had to do it didnt they?

It was one of the most foolhardy flights in history, and only a stroke of luck at 37,000ft prevented them drifting up to their deaths at the edge of the atmosphere.

The dead pigeons should have been James Glaisher’s warning. On 5 September 1862, the scientist was taking one of his first balloon flights – and alongside the compass, thermometers and bottles of brandy, he had decided to bring along six birds.

“One was thrown out at the height of three miles,” he later wrote. “When it extended its wings it dropped like a piece of paper; the second, at four miles, flew vigorously round and round, apparently taking a dip each time; a third was thrown out between four and five miles, and it fell downwards as a stone.”

No sooner had he noted these observations than he began to feel the “balloon sickness” himself. His arm had been resting on the table, but it failed to respond when he tried to lift it. Alarmed, he tried to call out to his aeronaut, Henry Coxwell, but the words froze in his mouth and his head lolled helplessly to one side.

Glaisher knew the end was nigh. “In an instance darkness overcame me… I believed I would experience nothing more as death would come unless we speedily descended.”

Amazingly, both Coxwell and Glaisher survived thanks to some last-minute luck – but had they not they would have drifted to their deaths at the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere. Their plight is one of the great daredevil stories in the history of aviation – and perhaps even a glimpse into the future of space travel.

more

http://www.bbc.com/f...as-high-as-jets

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Edited April 21, 2016 by seeder

[Vorg]

It's men like that, who desire knowledge over risk, who have advanced our scientific understanding.