[Music] [Music] [Applause] what's the highest you've ever jumped for most of us that number never exceeds more than a few feet for the simple reason that jumping up anything higher is terrifying Basso phobia or the fear of falling is a phobia inherent to humans and many species of animals in the visual cliff experiment a vast majority of infants would not cross what appeared to them as a steep drop the fear of falling appears to be ingrained into the very fiber of our being it's a sensation that's mutually understood by all but somewhat difficult to articulate statistically speaking you're about a hundred times more likely to die in a car accident than a plane crash yet most of us undoubtedly find flying much more terrifying than driving so why is this the case well for me the answer lies in the element of control if you're driving and something goes wrong you at least feel like you have some input over your own destiny if something goes wrong on a plane well you're just along for the ride there's a certainty to falling that's impossible to deny once you step over the edge you become nothing more than an object in motion your status wealth athleticism intellect none of it matters at that point you have surrendered yourself to the complete mercy of nature and the unbreakable laws that govern it in works of fiction great falls are used to represent finality characters are often allowed to cheat death in all sorts of ways but once you fall into the bottomless pit it's game over there's something so absolute about its outcome to question it would be to question one's own sanity only a madman would intentionally step off the platform of unfathomable Heights and yet in the visual cliff experiment a few infants would crawl over the cliff completely unfazed possibly because they had not yet developed depth perception but perhaps they grew up to be the very people who override billions of years of evolutionary programming to defy the most fundamental fear of man this is the story of the world's highest jump [Music] the jump I made here was about a meter or around three feet in height it's a jump I'm sure most of you would have no problem making as well but how much higher could you go without hurting yourself in a basic jump like this in Minecraft a fall of four blocks or higher will make you take damage a fall of twenty three and a half blocks is fatal in reality the farthest you can safely fall onto a hard surface is around ten to twelve feet higher than that and you're likely to walk away with minor injuries when the Undertaker threw Mick Foley off the top of the cell at King of the Ring 98 Foley plummeted at least 16 feet dislocating his shoulder in the process a fall of 20 feet or higher will most likely result in serious injuries and beyond 100 feet a fall is considered unsurvivable there's a common misconception that landing in water will break your fall but due to surface tension the only thing you'll be breaking is most of your bones landing in water from a hundred feet is equivalent to landing on concrete surviving any fall greater than that is exceedingly rare without protective equipment but for the vast majority of human history all people had to brace themselves were their arms and legs naturally this meant that any early attempts at the world's highest jump were almost certainly done so involuntarily the first unsung record-holders of this category may have earned their title by accident by force or by a failed attempt to end their life but if someone in prehistoric times did want to make the jump of a lifetime how far could they possibly fall well in the age before aircraft all people had to lift themselves was the terrain of the earth itself Mount Everest is the tallest point on earth but its slope would prematurely stop you long before you reach the bottom for a continuous uninterrupted fall you would have to jump from the world's tallest cliff for a purely vertical drop Mount Thor and Canada has a prominence of over 4,100 feet while highly unlikely it's theoretically possible that somebody could have jumped from this height however in an age before written history no one can say for sure for the first recording of anyone jumping off anything you have to venture closer to the stone mountains of China [Music] as far as we know this event may have never happened the only information on it was written by a guy 2,000 years before our time about a guy 2,000 years before his time as the legend goes Emperor shun escaped the roof of a burning barn by gliding off using his hat to slow his descent by my estimate the jump was probably done from the equivalent of a two-story building or about 20 feet it may not sound like much but this was significant it's the earliest recorded instance of anyone jumping with intent rather than falling by mistake all future jumps would be successors to shuns 20-foot leap off the burning barn the ancient Chinese were one of the first civilizations to experiment with Aeronautics as early as 200 BC acrobats would use bamboo shoots to perform falling stunts at the Imperial Palace by 500 AD kites had become commonplace in Chinese society some kite designs had become aerodynamic enough to support the weight of a man in 559 yuan Huang toe was one of several prisoners ordered to be executed by gliding off the 108-foot tall Phoenix Tower remarkably yuan survived claiming the unofficial jump record in the process for his achievement yuan was executed anyway despite his grim fate the record would remain alive for more than a thousand years the next great leap in aeronautical innovation came during the Italian Renaissance Leonardo da Vinci is often credited with the invention of the parachute but an even earlier concept can be traced back to 1470 from an anonymous manuscript in 1615 Faust over Anzio improved upon Leonardo's design but so far the parachute only existed in concept it wasn't until the 18th century that the parachute was brought into reality Louie Sebastian Letterman would design and manufacture the first modern parachute on December 26 1783 Letterman would record the first parachute jump in history by jumping from the upper balcony of the Montpelier observatory that very same year just a hundred 20 miles away in anime the Mongol fier brothers would develop the first hot air balloon within the span of a few months man Hynde it not only broken free from Earth's terrain but found a way to weaken the grip of gravity itself and it was only a matter of time before someone would use both to make history on October 22nd 1797 Andre garner and became the first person to perish you out of an aircraft garner and rose to 3,200 feet in a hot-air balloon then severed the basket parachuting back down unharmed you could argue that this wasn't a true jump as Garner and never actually stepped out of the balloons basket but based on the illustrations of the baskets design I would say that it serves little purpose and actually protecting the user and rather functions as a necessary component of the parachute itself the important thing is that Andre garner and flew about 500 feet higher than the top of the Burj Khalifa then severed his only means of flotation placing full faith in the thin fabric above his head to ensure that he didn't wind up becoming a human crepe on that day in 1797 andre garner and became the first skydiver just five years later he would set a new all-time record jumping from a height of 8,000 feet garner and aerial heroics would inspire a new generation of Daredevils who would replicate his death-defying stunts in front of spectators around the world 19th century parachuters would draw crowds at local carnivals and other venues by dropping out of the sky from altitudes of two to five thousand feet this range is comparable to the cruising altitude of the fortnight battle bus and while the stunts love death-defying sometimes death would not be defied in 1837 Robert Hawking earned the grim distinction of becoming the first skydiving fatality after his parachute failed at 5,000 feet Hawking was supposedly attempting to reach the 8,000 foot mark that garner and had set decades prior but the record would not be undone news of cocking steth was a sobering reminder to the dangers of falling from thousands of feet in the air and it extinguished the popularity of parachuting for decades afterwards for the rest of the 1800s there were no jump attempts on record surpassing garner ins 8,000 foot mark this was mostly due to the limitations of parachutes as balloons continued to soar throughout the 19th century since would-be jumpers were no longer encumbered by the Earth's terrain the highest theoretical jump was now determined by the balloon altitude record [Music] even at this time unmanned balloons could easily rise to tens of thousands of feet but manned flights now had to deal with the limits of human physiology above 15,000 feet most people will begin to suffer the effects of oxygen deprivation most modern-day skydiving excursions will not fly above this altitude for that very reason above 26,000 feet is the Death Zone the limit beyond which the human body can no longer survive without supplemental oxygen in 1862 James glacier and Henry Coxwell became the first people to surpass the Death Zone at around 29,000 feet the pair lost consciousness with Cox while barely managing to pull the balloons valve cord before blacking out the pair survived when the balloon rapidly descended back to a safe height but not before setting a new altitude record estimated between 29,000 and 37,000 feet by 1887 oxygen tanks became commercially available allowing the Lunars to safely enter the Death Zone in 1901 Arthur bersonin Reinard serines had an official record of 35,000 feet in a hydrogen balloon this time remaining conscious - recorded in 1927 Hawthorne grey became the first person to pass the 40,000 foot mark but perished after running out of oxygen in 1931 Auguste Piccard and Paul kipper passed the 50,000 foot mark becoming the first people to enter the stratosphere as well as the first people that truly witness the curvature of the earth in 1933 at the Century of Progress World Fair Thomas settle in Chester for Denis with surpassed 60,000 feet by this point record attempts were quickly approaching the next hard limit in manned balloon flights as altitude increases air pressure decreases as does the boiling point of fluids at around 60,000 feet air pressure is low enough where the temperature of your body will exceed the boiling point of water causing your blood to literally boil this limit is otherwise known as the Armstrong line and future flights above it will require a pressurized suit in 1934 the Soviet Union's OSA Viking 1 surpassed the Armstrong line and to peak altitude of 72 thousand feet before the balloon disintegrated during his descent killing all three crew members one year later and what would be a precursor to the space race the united states took back the record when albert Stevens in Orvil Anderson reached 72 thousand four hundred feet in the explorer to craft by this point balloon flight progression had provided the jump record with massive potential for improvement but before anyone could attempt a new record the parachute would have to rise to the occasion [Music] the turn of the 20th century saw two tremendous strides in aeronautics with the invention of the airplane in the airship the unprecedented boom in air travel renewed interest in the parachute in 1907 aerial stuntman Charles Broadwick would provide the first major parachute innovation with a static line which allowed the chute to automatically deploy when jumping out of an aircraft in 1914 Broadwick SCID opted daughter tiny became the first person to manually deploy a chute while in freefall eventually leading to the invention of the ripcord and starting in 1919 leslie irvine began manufacturing and distributing the type a parachute for use as life preservers on airplanes the irvine shoe would revitalize the pastime of stunt jumping just as the balloon jumpers would perform death-defying jumps a century earlier a new generation of aerial acrobats would wow spectators by jumping from the cockpits of their airplanes this new wave of Daredevils became known as the Barnstormers the most famous of which was a man by the name of Charles Lindbergh Lindbergh was most known for making the first nonstop transatlantic flight but buried among his long list of aviation accomplishments was the new record for the world's highest jump in 1926 Lindbergh used an urban chute to bail out of his plane at an altitude of 13,000 feet finally breaking Gardner ins record after more than a century 1927 saw the first tests of parachutes and military combat leading to the rise of the paratrooper in 1943 US Army surgeon Randy Lovelace became the first person on record to jump from the stratosphere in an Air Force experiment Lovelace bailed out of an army bomber at over 40,000 feet the force of the parachute knocked him unconscious and the minus 40 degree temperatures left his hands frostbitten but Lovelace survived the jump by the skin of his teeth claiming the record in the process the first ever jump from the stratosphere would be the last with a conventional parachute at least in the United States Soviet jumpers Vasily Romagna and Nikolai nicotine would both set higher marks with nicotine surpassing 47,000 feet in 1957 while the Russians were fixated on the record itself the US directed their focus to survival if pilots were to survive ejecting at very high altitudes they would need to be equipped with parachutes fit for the edge of space Randy Lovelace is near fatal jump would usher in a new era the dawn of the space jump [Music] I'm going to jump do a flip patience of YouTube it is eye doctor spiral standing here atop this three-story structure now in my medical opinion I would say that it's unsafe to fall from this height I mean a fall from this high can make your hair fall out skydivers can fall faster than 120 miles per hour in those conditions your hair won't last long that's why if you're playing to jump off anything I recommend using keeps hair loss prevention first keeps is the most affordable fda-approved hair loss product and you can visit an online doctor right now to get your medication shipped right to your door now to demonstrate keeps as 90% effectiveness at treating and reducing the symptoms of hair loss I will jump off this three-story structure right now oh oh oh my gosh Wow I really just fell from all the way up there and keeps kept my hair safe my Heat it's game ovah for hair loss visit keeps calm / implement for 50% off your first order that's K EPS calm / and plummet [Music] scientifically speaking outer space doesn't begin until the Karman line more than 300,000 feet high the region between it and the Armstrong line is classified as near space and as jet planes flew higher pilots would need a new kind of parachute to safely eject from this range following Randy Lovelace near-fatal jump the Air Force began testing experimental high-altitude parachutes on dummies early designs would force the dummies into an uncontrollable flat spin that would be potentially fatal on human subjects by 1958 they were ready to test out a new multistage design that was intended to stabilize the jumper only this time the test would be conducted on a human being an unenviable task bestowed upon Captain Joseph Kittinger hitting her had already proven himself as the Air Force's new favorite guinea pig with his role in project man-high a 1957 research assignment that saw kidding her soared ninety six thousand feet in a balloon setting a new altitude record in the process his next assignment would be project excelsior we're kidding her would once again rise to the stratosphere in a balloon only this time he would have to jump out on November 16th 1959 kidding her fastened his pressure suit and boarded Excelsior one rising to an altitude of seventy six thousand four hundred feet at that point hitting her unstrapped himself from the gondola and stepped over the edge immediately there was a problem hitting her at prematurely deployed his stabilization chute just like the test dummies kidding her entered an uncontrollable spin at a hundred twenty rpm kidding her blacked out nearly thirteen miles above the earth he regained consciousness just three thousand feet from the ground miraculously the rest of the chutes functioned according to plan allowing joke hitting her to escape with his life and a new record despite a near disaster on the first run kidding her was determined to prove that the new parachute system could work less than a month later kidding her would return to the skies with Excelsior 2 jumping from 74 thousand feet this time the parachutes functioned flawlessly and although he was just adding to the record he would get one more chance to make history in the summer of 1960 on the morning of August 16th kidding her board of the gondola for Excelsior three sudden cloud cover almost canceled the mission before it started but kidding her launched just one minute before the orders to cancel the flight soon after overcast skies would be the least of his concerns at about 50,000 feet pitting her realized that his right glove had failed to pressurize causing his hand to swell to twice its size despite the potentially catastrophic complication Kittinger did not inform the ground crew he knew that if he did the mission will be immediately aborted anticipating that they would never get another chance at a jump hitting her bit the bullet and continued to rise about 1 hour and 40 minutes after launch kidding her took the highest step in the world and jumped from the stratosphere for the final time hitting her free field for four and a half minutes before deploying his main chute he reached a top speed of 600 14 miles per hour 13 minutes and 45 seconds after stepping out of the gondola joke hitting her touched down in the New Mexico desert the ground crew was ecstatic not only was Excelsior 3 a resounding success but kidding her had just landed from the highest jump in history so just how high did Joe go [Music] one hundred two thousand eight hundred feet not only did joke hitting her set the all-time jump record he did so while setting the all-time balloon altitude record the second highest altitude ever reached by man at that point after proving that humans could survive exposure to the upper atmosphere project Excelsior would open the floodgates for man space exploration soon after both the US and Soviet Union would send the first astronauts into orbit but in that moment kin eager stood farther from the Earth's surface than all about a single person before him and then jumped back down years later while serving in Vietnam kiniry would be captured as a prisoner of war after his plane was shot down one has to wonder which moment was more terrified remarkably despite accomplishing one of the most impressive feats in the history of aviation kidding er never actually cared about the record he took far more satisfaction in completing the mission and validating the effectiveness of the high altitude parachute ironically the record would go on to define his legacy before joke hitting her the jump record only existed as a formality a sloppy and poorly documented patchwork of events consisting mostly of people who stumbled into the record completely unintentionally in many ways killing her was no different but after Excelsior the record would never be the same it was the first time that the world's highest jump was documented broadcasted and celebrated in the media kidding her had effectively made the record tangible and before long a new wave of contenders were lining up to break it naturally the first people the challenge for the American record were the Russians in 1962 puter Dolgov in yemeni Andreev were tasked with the soviet union's first attempt at a space jump Andreev successfully jumped from eighty-three thousand feet setting a new record for the longest freefall Dolgov jumped from nearly 94 thousand feet but perished after his suit depressurized Dolgov death would be covered up for years but as far as the Soviets were concerned the mission was a success even though joke hitting hers record was well documented and for nicely measured with state-of-the-art technology it wasn't verified by the FAI allowing the Soviets to claim the official record despite falling nearly 20,000 feet short for all intents and purposes Joe Kittinger still held the record but the Soviets had the validation of a bureaucratic sanctioning body in Switzerland and they were content with that not content with the disputed title was a young adventurer from New Jersey Nicolas piantanida the young skydiver had been obsessed with jumping ever since his childhood where he would nearly fall to his death after jumping from the roof of his apartment with a makeshift parachute made from his bedsheets by the 60s piantanida was determined to bring the undisputed record back to America by making the greatest jump in history his goal was to break both kidding hers altitude record and ondrea's freefall record in what would become known as Project Strato jump but unlike the space jumpers before him piantanida didn't have government backing he had to essentially create his own ragtag aeronautical research program from scratch using sponsors volunteers and borrowed facilities while preparing for the jump piantanida sought out consultation from Joe kidding her himself kidding her never a fan of chasing records refused he had nearly lost his life performing the feat just a few years prior and he didn't appreciate piantanida as cavalier attitude towards the daunting challenge however despite his bare-bones resources piantanida and the Strato team managed to assemble a working balloon gondola and pressure suit by the autumn of 1965 nick piantanida was ready to take to the skies on October 22nd Strato jump 1 lifted off from a field outside of st. Paul Minnesota unfortunately high wind shear would destroy the balloon at just 16,000 feet forcing an emergency landing and a second attempt he would try again on February 2nd 1966 this time the balloon had no problem reaching the stratosphere were continued rising soon it had soared past Andreev smark of 80,000 then passed kidding hers mark of 100 mm piantanida x' balloon topped out at an unprecedented height of one hundred twenty three thousand five hundred feet his unyielding hubris was about to pay off the record was tantalizingly close all nick piantanida had to do was step out of the gondola and into the record books but there was a problem the oxygen line tethering piantanida to the gondola wouldn't detach and he had no way of severing the connection after several agonizing minutes at the edge of glory the ground crew decided to abort the mission in a turbulent and dangerous descent a battered piano NIDA returned to Earth with the gondola after the heartbreaking failure piantanida would not be deterred on May 1st 1966 he stepped back into the gondola with the goal of once again reaching the 120,000 foot mark this time he would pay the ultimate price at 57,000 feet nick piantanida suit depressurized the ground crew immediately aborted the mission but at that point very little could be done piantanida was starved of oxygen for more than 20 minutes falling into a coma from which he never recovered as close as he came to proving everyone wrong piantanida Shrek lessness would ultimately cost him everything he met a cruelly fitting fate spending his final moments in the sky the place he always seemed to belong the Strato jump catastrophe would mark the end of record attempts for a while neither of the two world superpowers were interested in balloon jump escapades anymore they had moved on to new frontiers future record holders would have to independently direct their own operations after progressing through millennia of physical barriers to the sky the newest limitations to the jump record were now cost and ambition the 60s had quickly become the age of the astronaut and the boom and space exploration had taken much of the luster off the once vaunted space jump it seemed that the only notable jumps of this era happened by complete chance in 1966 American pilot Bill Weaver would survive a 78 thousand foot fall after ejecting from a jet at Mach 3 his life would be spared thanks to the same parachute design that joke hitting her had tested just six years prior in 1971 DB Cooper became the first and only person to successfully commit airplane piracy parachuting an estimated 10,000 feet with $200,000 in ransom money in 1973 Serbian flight attendant Ben Cebu Levitch survived the highest fall on record without a parachute after the plane she was servicing exploded at 33,000 feet and in 1982 Larry Walters survived an ascent to 16,000 feet after tying dozens of weather balloons to a lawn chair the next attempt at the world's highest jump wouldn't happen until the 90s with decorated british paratroopers nish Bruce starting in the early nineties Bruce began training for the eventual skydive from space project where he would make a plan jump from 130,000 feet the project was partially funded by NASA who wanted to test the effects of radiation at high altitudes despite an encouraging start the project would abruptly end in 1994 when Bruce suffered an unexpected mental breakdown stabbing his girlfriend with a pair of scissors the incident would mark the beginning of Bruce's eight-year long battle with mental illness a battle he would eventually lose in 2002 miss Bruce would end his life by intentionally jumping from a plane without a parachute much like nick piantanida nish Bruce was someone who seemed to belong to the sky this time going out on his own [Music] after four decades of magnificent failure since project Excelsior the new millennium would bring a new wave of contenders trying to beat the record starting in 2000 Sheryl Stearns would announce her plans to jump from 130,000 feet with the formation of the Strato quest project Stearns was the most accomplished female skydiver in history and was prepared to make the ultimate jump in the spring of 2001 unfortunately Strato quest could never quite materialize after numerous delays and funding issues the project had fallen to funked by the end of the 2000s an Australian man rod Milner announced it next March he plans to skydive from 25 miles above the earth reaching speeds over a thousand miles an hour and breaking the sound barrier in 2001 Australian skydiver rod Milner would make waves in the media by announcing his plan to jump from 130 thousand feet and break the sound barrier with his fall the mission titled project space jump had reportedly secured funding from the Australian Defence Force Academy with plans to launch a year later in March 2002 well a year came and went and no jump was ever attempted following the initial media hype project space jump was never discussed again and eventually forgotten coming off much more like a publicity stunt than an actual attempt at the record in 2003 French adventurer Michel Fournier announced Legrand Hsiao during which he planned to jump from a hundred 30,000 feet Fournier made the most progress of anyone in the decade managing to produce a working balloon pressure suit and gondola unfortunately all of fournier's attempts would be aborted before they could even launch after spending two decades in nearly twenty million dollars chasing the record Michel Fournier couldn't even get off the ground 2010 would mark the 50-year anniversary of joke hitting his record and after half a century of failure many began to wonder whether anyone could break it starting in 2010 redbull would sponsor the Stratus project and team up with Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner to finally top kidding hers record once and for all preparing Felix for the jump would be none other than joke kidding her himself kidding hers blessings seemed to ward off the demons that had plagued all other attempts since he set the record in March 2012 Baumgartner would successfully complete the project's first test jump from 71 thousand feet in July he would complete the second test jump this time from 96 thousand feet and finally on October 14 2012 Felix Baumgartner was ready to make history in a moment streamed live around the world [Music] after finally having his record broken Joe Kittinger never looked happier after 52 years of frustration there was finally a new record holder of the world's highest jump in addition to setting the altitude record Felix Baumgartner became the first jumper in history to break the sound barrier in his free fall as well as setting the record for the longest distance in freefall the YouTube livestream was watched by nearly 10 million viewers a record that itself would stand for almost six years the new record provided a rare moment of inspiration for a generation who had very little to celebrate in terms of aeronautical achievement truly it was a jump for the ages after taking half a century to be kidding hers mark of a hundred two thousand who knew how long it would take to be Bumgarner the record would stand for two years on October 24 2014 computer scientist Alan Eustace would set a new altitude record of 135,000 889 feet Eustace worked as the senior VP of engineering at Google and had no prior history of skydiving or extreme stunts one day he decided that he wanted to pursue the record so we assembled a team of collaborators to form Stratos Eustace became the first jumper in history to ascend to the stratosphere without a gondola relying only on a pressure suit to protect him from the vacuum of near space the reduction in weight allowed him to soar more than eight thousand feet higher than Baumgartner's mark in just a single attempt at the record Alan Eustace went up and got it that's where the record stands today but where does it go from here well the record for the highest unmanned balloon flight is a hundred seventy three thousand nine hundred feet lighter weight missions like strategy may approach this altitude but sooner or later jumpers will reach another heart limit the mesosphere starting at around a hundred seventy thousand feet the air becomes thin enough to force any balloon to burst from the pressure difference as a result the mesosphere is the least explored part of the atmosphere extending too high for balloons and too low for satellites but what if you were to skip the mesosphere entirely and jump from a satellite the International Space Station orbits in the thermosphere at an average altitude of about 1.3 million feet nearly 10 times the height of the current record however since the ISS is in orbit it's traveling about 10 times faster than an average bullet re-entering the atmosphere at that speed will cause the human body to burn up like a meteor currently the best hope for space jumps beyond the stratosphere may be Virgin Galactic spaceship 2 a suborbital space plane capable of surpassing the 300,000 foot mark due to the parabolic shape of the flight path it could be theoretically possible to jump from the peak without extreme exit velocity Virgin Galactic plans to launch commercial flights on the space plane starting this decade so it's possible that the next great stride in space jumping may be just a few years away for now the record stands at just under a hundred 36,000 feet no matter the era death-defying jumps have never failed to amaze and inspire those who witness them space jumping is both a product and an example of our endless thirst for progress 60 years ago as joke hitting her gaze down at the earth prior to his record-setting jump he remarked at the irony of such beauty existing in such deadly conditions he compared floating through the stratosphere to being enveloped in an ocean of cyanide despite literally being on top of the world kidding ER was overcome with an overwhelming sense of humility [Music] we defy nature by venturing higher and higher and nature humbles us with its unconquered believe Asness after 4000 years of trying we have already managed to jump from unfathomable heights but we still have so much farther to go for the future of the world's highest jump the sky's the limit [Music] [Music]
EmpLemon said even himself he takes a lot of inspiration from Jon Bois in one of his previous videos. It’s really interesting to see Emp evolve from YTPs to video essays while still retaining that YTP style that makes him unique.
Also reminds me of SummoningSalt
He even references Jon in the video
"And then, he decided he's like to do it again"
meh its a c-tier jon vid tbh