Felix Baumgartner, who called himself the fastest man in the world after a jump from space, died Thursday during a paramotor flight in Italy. ‘Fearless Felix’ set multiple records, but was also a controversial figure.
More than ten years ago, a drawing surfaced that Baumgartner made when he was five years old, of a person with a parachute. “I had a dream… and this was it!!!”, the young Austrian wrote. It would be the start of a life marked by jumps, records, and adrenaline. These are five of his unique achievements.
1. The highest jump ever
Many people will still remember the images from 2012. Baumgartner sits in a tiny capsule that is brought to an altitude of 39 kilometers by a helium balloon. Below him, the curvature of the earth is visible. “Sometimes you have to go very high to realize how small you are,” the Austrian said before his departure.
For the eye of a camera, Baumgartner calmly gives a thumbs up and jumps out of the capsule. Then he falls rapidly until he reaches a record speed of 1,343 kilometers per hour. He is the first person to break the sound barrier. A wrong move or a technical defect would have been fatal.
Four minutes later, Baumgartner is safely back on earth, in New Mexico, in the United States. In addition to a speed and altitude record, he also breaks a YouTube record: more than eight million people follow the jump live.
2. Flight over the Channel in a suit with wings
Many people had heard of Baumgartner before 2012. In 2003, he flies across the Channel in a special suit with wings. 10 kilometers above the white cliffs of Dover, he jumps from a plane. The daredevil recalls mainly the extreme cold. At that height it is 40 degrees below zero.
In fourteen minutes he flies to Cap Blanc-Nez in France. “This was total freedom,” the Austrian said after arrival. “You are completely alone. I love that.”
3. Illegal jumps in Kuala Lumpur and Taiwan
Also in 1999, he received a lot of media attention after his jump from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. That building was the highest in the world at that time. He sneaks past security and jumps from a narrow crane that was used by window cleaners.
Eight years later, he performs a similar stunt from the 508-meter-high Taipei 101 tower in Taiwan. He hires breakdancers to distract security. After his jump, Baumgartner was no longer allowed to enter Taiwan.
4. The lowest jump ever: from the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio
Baumgartner also often jumps from structures that are actually too low for a safe jump. That was the case with the famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, which is 29 meters high. “That is extremely dangerous, normally you need at least 50 or 60 meters,” says an employee of Baumgartner about it.
The stuntman creeps onto the statue at night. He walks via the arm to the hand. Out of respect, he leaves a bunch of flowers on the shoulder of the Christ the Redeemer statue. Baumgartner lands safely and broke the world record for the lowest base jump.
5. 24 hours of racing on the Nürburgring
In the years after his jump from space, Baumgartner changes course. “I have made all the jumps that are there for me. Now I need a new challenge,” he says. Then he trains for the 24 hours of the Nürburgring in 2016. He finishes in ninth place.
But the Austrian is also increasingly getting the media for other reasons. He speaks out in favor of dictatorships and states that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán should receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to stop migrants. On his social media, the Austrian also criticizes climate activists and opposed the rights of the queer community.