Michel Fournier, the man who’s trying to go faster then sound in FREE FALL.
He’s born on May 4th, 1944, and a 62 year old Frenchman and a former colonel of the French army reserve and parachute officer.
With more than 8,500 jumps, and over a hundred from very high altitudes, he was named an officer of France’s National Order of Merit
with the aeronautics medal and holds the French record with his free-fall jump of 12,000 meters

He wants to try to set this record this month above the forests of Canada at an altitude of 40 Km.
For example, a fighter jet flies at 20km high and passenger airplanes flies at 12km.
With a Helium-balloon he’ll get to the Stratosphere and hopefully land alive about 10.5 minutes later on the ground.
On this decent he’ll also will brake 4 records.
1. The highest free fall ever (until now 31,333 meters)
2. The longest free fall (He’s hoping to free fall 6 minutes and 25 seconds)
3. The highest manned balloonflight (since 1966 this is 37km, by Nick Piantanida)
4. Fastest free fall

He will wear a special suite based on the space-suites astronauts use. In this suite he can survive for 1 hour in an environment
with only 1HectoPascale pressure (1/1000 of the normal earth’s pressure)
On his record breaking jump he’ll be facing different kind of dangers
- The risk for a long embolie is high
- The body itself can ‘explode’ at these speeds
- The big question is what will happen with the body if he breaks the sound barrier?