P2_7: The Supersonic Man

Abstract

For this paper we performed a simulation in R to calculate the maximum possible speed and mach number of a skydiver jumping from 40,000m and staying in a continuous heads-down position. The parameters are based loosely on the "Red Bull Stratos" project. We found that the skydiver would have a maximum velocity of 444.8ms^-1 at 60 seconds into the dive, reaching mach 1.5, and would stay supersonic for 55 seconds of the flight.