Red Bull is one of the most successful energy drink companies in the world and has always been popular with athletes and associated with extreme sports. In 2010, the company teamed up with Austrian skydiver, Felix Baumgartner, to prepare for the highest skydive ever attempted. With a mission to transcend human limits, Red Bull Stratos brought together the world's leading minds in aerospace medicine, engineering, pressure suit development, capsule creation, and balloon fabrication. On October 14, 2012, Baumgartner broke three world records during his supersonic free-fall from 24 miles up in the stratosphere over New Mexico, and became the first human to break the sound barrier without any form of engine power. This magnificent feat could not have taken place without the assistance of retired Air Force Colonel Joe Kittinger, who previously held the world record for the highest parachute jump in August 1960 from 102,800 feet and served as Baumgartner's mentor and capsule communicator. He was also the first person to make a solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in a gas balloon. Serving as a fighter pilot during the Vietnam War, he achieved an aerial kill of a North Vietnamese jet fighter and was later shot down himself, spending 11 months as a prisoner of war in a North Vietnamese prison. Art Thompson, the Technical Project Director and engineer for the Red Bull Stratos capsule, assembled an award-winning team that made possible Felix Baumgartner's record-breaking stratospheric skydive.
Inducted in 2013.
Portrait Location: Modern Jet

Induction Video