Daily Survival Guide
Aug. 19th, 2010 09:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
macdobhran_______________________________
On August 19 and 20, 1957, Air Force Major David Simons set an altitude record for balloon flight, ascending to 101,516 feet on a 32-hour flight. Simons was participating in Project Manhigh, begun in 1955 to study both the composition of the atmosphere at high altitudes and the effects of high-altitude flight on the human body. Simon's capsule was only 8 feet tall and 3 feet in diameter, and weighed more than 1,600 pounds. His balloon expanded to a diameter of 200 feet at peak altitude. Two other Project Manhigh flights were made, by Captain Joseph Kittinger in June 1957 and by Lieutenant Clifton McClure in October 1958, but Simons was the one to set the altitude and flight duration record.
