Fearless Felix
We all know Felix as merely the man who flew faster
than the speed of sound, yet, there’s a lot of things that none of us know
about the skydiver that has attracted eyes since his astonishing freefall .
First of all, Baumgartner was born in the city of
Salzburg, Austria (Yes, It is that amazing setting of the one and only, The
Sound Of Music) on 20th April 1969. The genius was immersed into the world of
skydiving in 1985, at the age of 16, after his first sky dive.
“The company's [Red bull] out-of-the-box thinking and
Felix's adventurous spirit clicked, and they've collaborated ever since leading
to Felix’s records”, claims Red Bull’s website, yet, a recent illustration
revealed by British National Daily newspaper, The Guardian shows that when he
was five, the skydiving daredevil drew a picture of himself parachuting down to
earth while his family watched.
Conventional skydiving eventually outgrew Felix’s
always challenging spirit and the adrenalin rush it gave him stopped being
enough, this is when he extended his skills to BASE jumping which is simply
parachuting from a fixed object or landmark.
“I find that the lightning-fast reflexes and precise
techniques required by such low-altitude feats also enhance my high-altitude
skydiving technique”, he once said. Felix has 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
Malmö, Sweden on 18 August 2006. On 12 December 2007 he became the first person
to jump from the 91st floor observation deck of the then-tallest completed building
in the world, Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan and has been nominated for a World
Sports Award and two categories in the NEA Extreme Sports Awards. He is also a
prominent advocate for the nonprofit Wings for Life Spinal Cord Research
Foundation. And, while he acknowledges that the Red Bull Stratos mission is a
step into the unknown, his determination to reach the edge of space and break
the speed of sound was unshakable.
On October 14th 2012, Felix jumped to Earth from a
helium balloon in the stratosphere. As part of this project, he set the
altitude record for a manned balloon flight, parachute jump from the highest
altitude, and greatest free fall velocity.
The conclusion I would like to make is that Felix is
an example of a person we can take as a role model. You definitely don’t have
to be a scientist to be an example or to take him as one. However, as a world
citizen, you should make yourself a pioneer wherever you go and in whatever you
do in the world.
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