Meet First Man In Space At Biplane Expo

"Well, I was the first man in space, really," said Colonel Joe Kittinger, USAF Retired.

Joe Kittinger is a pilot and former Air Force officer who has lived enough for three people. His first record-breaking feat happened on August 16, 1960. Wearing a special pressure suit, Kittinger rode a giant helium-filled balloon to an altitude of 102,800 feet.

But, it's what he did next that really took some guts. From almost 19 and a half miles above the earth, he jumped! Kittinger was so high, he freefell for 4 minutes and 36 seconds.

Kittinger hit a top speed of 614 miles per hour, fast enough to break the sound barrier, but had no sensation of speed. And he didn't have time for sightseeing.

"Well, remember I was there as a test pilot. I was there as an engineer. I was extremely busy. I had a pressure suit around me and the stabilization system. And my task was to analyze how the system was working, how the stabilization was working, how the pressure suit was working, and I was a very, very busy person," said Kittinger.

The only trouble during the flight was a broken seal on his right glove.

"This caused my hand to swell about twice its normal size, and I couldn't use my hand. But, I had designed everything to where I could use it with the right or the left hand," said Kittinger.

Colonel Kittinger recovered, going on to serve three tours of duty in Vietnam and spending a year as a POW in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" prison.

He was also the first to fly a balloon solo across the Atlantic. But, it's his work on the Project Man High and Excelsior high altitude balloon missions he's most proud of; work he says wasn't done to set any records.

"We were there to provide a means of escape for pilots and astronauts and the systems we developed are still being used today, some 48 years later," said Kittinger.

You can meet Colonel Kittinger this weekend at the Biplane Expo in Bartlesville. It runs through 5 p.m. on Saturday at Frank Phillips Field.