Felix Baumgartner is an Austrian skydiver, daredevil and BASE jumper.
23 Facts About Felix Baumgartner
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Felix Baumgartner is widely known for jumping to Earth from a helium balloon from the stratosphere on 14 October 2012 and landing in New Mexico, United States, as part of the Red Bull Stratos project.
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Felix Baumgartner became the first person to break the sound barrier relative to the surface without vehicular power on his descent.
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Felix Baumgartner broke skydiving records for exit altitude, vertical freefall distance without a drogue parachute, and vertical speed without a drogue.
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Felix Baumgartner spent time in the Austrian military where he practiced parachute jumping, including training to land on small target zones.
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Felix Baumgartner was born to mother Eva in Salzburg, Austria.
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On 20 July 2003, Felix Baumgartner became the first person to skydive across the English Channel using a specially made carbon fibre wing.
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Alban Geissler, who developed the SKYRAY carbon fiber wing with Christoph Aarns, suggested after Felix Baumgartner's jump that the wing he used was a copy of two prototype SKYRAY wings sold to Red Bull two years earlier.
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Felix Baumgartner set the world record for the lowest BASE jump ever, when he jumped 29 metres from the hand of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.
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Felix Baumgartner became the first person to BASE jump from the completed Millau Viaduct in France on 27 June 2004 and the first person to skydive onto, then BASE jump from, the Turning Torso building in Malmo, Sweden, on 18 August 2006.
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In January 2010, it was reported that Felix Baumgartner was working with a team of scientists and sponsor Red Bull to attempt the highest sky-dive on record, using a helium balloon.
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On 15 March 2012, Felix Baumgartner completed the first of 2 test jumps from 21,818 metres.
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On 25 July 2012, Felix Baumgartner completed the second of two planned test jumps from 29,460 metres.
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Felix Baumgartner landed in eastern New Mexico after jumping from a then world-record 38,969.3 metres, falling a record distance of 36,402.6 metres and parachuting the final 2,566.7 metres.
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Felix Baumgartner was in free fall for 4 minutes and 19 seconds, a fall time 17 seconds shorter than the previous record set during mentor Joseph Kittinger's jump on 16 August 1960.
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Felix Baumgartner initially struggled with claustrophobia after spending time in the pressurized suit required for the jump, but overcame it with help from a sports psychologist and other specialists.
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In 2014, Felix Baumgartner decided to join Audi Motorsport to drive an Audi R8 LMS for the 2014 24 Hours of Nurburgring after racing Volkswagen Polos in 2013.
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Felix Baumgartner underwent another intense physical and driver training session to prepare him for the race.
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Felix Baumgartner helped the team to a ninth place overall finish.
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In January 2016, Felix Baumgartner provoked a stir of critical news coverage in his home country after posting several critical remarks against refugees and recommending the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for the Nobel Peace Prize.
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Later on, Felix Baumgartner endorsed the presidential candidate of the right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria, Norbert Hofer.
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Felix Baumgartner subsequently claimed that he must have become "too uncomfortable" for "political elites".
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Felix Baumgartner dated Playboy German playmate of the century Gitta Saxx.