when Philippe Petit set up an illegal cable between the world trade centers he didn’t need anybody’s help, he believed in himself and his skill. That’s 1000x more badass to me.
Petit also used a 3/4" wire. Wallenda uses a 2" wire for his walks.
I don’t think he uses that size for all his walks?
The size used on these large profile walks, I imagine has more to do with the amount of tension, distance, and counter balance weights that the wire supports.
So, a shorter distance walk would only require a smaller cable.
Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon were 2 in. wires, but I am not sure on the others.
As far as the tension goes, the cable used for the grand canyon was strong enough to support an airplane. I think the wire could have been thinner, but I’m guessing it had more to do with safety.
Baumgartner’s jump was amazing but it’s success had far less to do with skill and far more to do with superior gear. Don’t get me wrong, it took a giant pair of balls to trust your gear and make that jump but I can’t compare it to the skill and concentration a high wire walk across Niagara Falls or the Grand Canyon would take.
From the second Wallenda steps off the platform his fate is entirely tied to his skill and concentration.
From the second Baumgartner’s ballon lifted off his fate was mostly tied to the prior decisions and skills of a bunch of engineers, machinists and meteorologists.
…and the guy constantly talking in his ear with updates on his progress. As impressive as this is (to walk the span of the canyon), to have someone yapping in your ear seems to void the idea of focus and concentration needed.
He told the guy in his ear that he did not need to keep knowing how long he has been on the line at one point and seems to quiet most of the chatter.
Both stunts required a ton of discipline and training and both required a huge team of skilled engineers and/or scientists. I think to say Felix simply jumped & was relying entirely on technology and other people is shitting on him. I can’t even imagine how much work went into getting his body ready for that jump. Basically, both are bad-ass mofo’s and both have massive balls!
If the wire was looped like say, a treadmill, would he fall off?
Baumgartner saluted and dove forward off the ledge at 12:08 MDT (18:08 UTC);[5] Mission Control acknowledged this by saying “jumper away”.[33] After 42 seconds of descent Baumgartner reached his maximum velocity—an unverified 1,342 kilometres per hour (834 mph).[6] An uncontrolled spin started within the first minute of the jump which could have been fatal, but it ended at 01:23 when Baumgartner regained stability,[4][5] though in a later press conference he likened the fall in the suit to “swimming without feeling the water” as he could not feel the air to give him a sense of direction.[33] Baumgartner had an abort switch that would have allowed deployment of a drogue parachute, which would have arrested the spin but prevented him from breaking any speed records.[5]
After 03:40 of free fall Baumgartner radioed to Mission Control that his visor was fogging up, echoing his earlier concerns about its heating.[36] After 04:16 minutes of free fall he deployed his parachute, which opened and arrested freefall at 4:20 minutes. At the deployment altitude Baumgartner could have continued to fall safely for another 20 seconds, but it was difficult for him to verify his exact altitude. At 12:17 MDT (18:17 UTC), approximately 11 minutes after jumping from the capsule, Baumgartner landed on his feet in eastern New Mexico.[37] Baumgartner dropped to his knees and punched the air before being met by ground crews.[5][33] A helicopter was dispatched to return Baumgartner to the Roswell base.[6]
So other than recovering from a spin, that he had a safety system of a drogue shoot to back him up if he was unable to recover, I really don’t see how you can compare the two in terms of the individual’s control of their own survival. The vast majority of things that could go wrong for Baumgartner were out of his control (chute deployment, life support, getting the frail balloon up to that height etc). There’s a reason in the 50’s and 60’s that the US was sending monkeys up in rockets and parachuting them back down… the rocket science part isn’t in operating the parachute, it’s in designing it to return the mammal safely.
Then you have Wallenda. I suppose the cable could break but I doubt it. There’s no drogue shoot or any other safety system to back him up. Either his balance is enough to recover from a stumble or wind or he dies.
To put it another way… I think now that Baumgartner took the risk of proving all the equipment was going to work it wouldn’t be hard to find lots of skydivers who would be willing to duplicate his jump if you offered to pay for it. Think you could say the same for finding people willing to walk that wire over the Grand Canyon with no safety harness or chute?
Jesus Christ the savior you love to argue. Nobody here would even dream of trying either stunt so it’s kinda backseat driving at this point. I digress.
oooooh jehovah, please bring this thread back on topic or let it die.
As someone who has both skydived AND done highlines (tethered) I will say that the tightrope is WAY scarier. Like 100x scarier.
Just the amount of time that Felix had for something to go wrong was much much less. There was something like a minute where he was in a “danger zone”. The entire time on the wire was life or death and the smallest mistake would be a killer.
Would you be willing to try the space jump if uncle Onyx offered to pay for the same team/equipment Baumgartner used?
The space jump is almost certainly EASIER.
I mean, let’s say that Felix has 10,000 skydives (which he probably doesn’t). Assuming they were all belly to earth freefalls from 13 grand (I can guarantee they weren’t) that’s 10,000 minutes of “practice”, or 160 hours. In 3 years, I’ve probably spent close to half that amount of time on a slackline, and I’m not even that good. Wallenda has been doing this for 32 years… dude probably has 1,000,000 minutes on a wire and he STILL seemed sketched out.
You do the math.
Combine what Newman said, plus having the thought of your Dad dying doing the same thing in the back of your mind:
[sarcasm]you guys sure do like to argue[/sarcasm]
Grandfather
Either way 