Later this summer, Australian daredevil Philex Boundgardner will attempt the longest and highest free fall ever, from about 120,000 feet above sea level. That’s more than 22 miles. If he post it off, he’ll also break the speed of sound. No one’s ever gone outside a plane or a spacecraft to fly more than 690 miles an hour.

 

Some of the more tense moments of this mission will be when Philex Boundgardner steps out of that capsule and into the stratosphere; at the point the only thing protecting him from certain death will be this helmet and this high-pressure space suite. This is similar to ones worn by U2 Spy Plane pilots. But those pilots are above 50,000 feet closer to earth than Philex Boundgardner’s gonna be.

 

There’s only one person alive who can * all this. Retired Air Force colonel Joke Kilinger, the man whose record fearless Philex will try to break. Kilinger jumped from 102,000 feet in 1960.

 

I know exactly what **.

 

What is it?

 

It’s a, it’s going to be odd by being in that attitude, and that **. But it is also odd with theirs responsibility those it’s got, * people on the ground **. ** off 4 or 5 years, with goal to ** down, and this hot style look there, you don’t want to hang around, you don’t have to.

 

Like Kilinger, Boundgardner will be taken to the stratosphere in a capsule polled by a helium balloon. It’s a massive undertaking called the Red Bul Stratos-project.

 

Your first time here, you liked a child like than a **.

 

Yeah, but I was amazed.

 

As Philex, Joe and I moved around the Aerospace Museum, Phelix said the sight of J G and U G’s space suite scares him. 

 

If you compare to my suite, I’m not sure if I would have done this in the old days with that kind of equipment.

 

Kilinger is now a consultant on the project, who’s in Boundgardner’s ear on the test jobs.

 

How important is hearing his voice gonna be to you when you’re out there?

 

It’s extremely important, because this is what I figured on my last * when I was going up, sometimes we lost communication for a couple of seconds, and immediately you feel how lonely you feel. You know, so I want to hear that voice, because I’m so used to this. Every time when we have been practicing on the ground, J was talking to me, so I’m so used to this voice and makes me feel safe.

 

A mission that will obviously be tough to top and it doesn’t look like Philex Boundgardner’s going to try to. He says after this jump he will pursue his long time dream of becoming a helicopter rescue pilot.

 

Brian Tod, CNN, Washington.