FASTEST MAN ON EARTH

By DELL ARTHUR 

            He was known as the fastest man on earth and his name was John Paul Stapp. How he acquired such a moniker wasn’t by accident. He earned the title by one of the most heroic adventures of modern times—at least in the 1950’s. He nearly broke the sound barrier riding on a rocket propelled specially designed sled down a 3,550 foot rail at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. What he accomplished hasn’t been surpassed up to present times.

            The year was December 1954 and as a medical officer with the United States Air Force, Stapp was preparing himself for a rocket ride that would take him down the track and obtain a speed of 632 miles per hour. But that wasn’t all—he would be brought to a stop that induced a force of 46.2 “G” forces. This was something that no one believed a human being could survive.

            But he did.

            The reason behind this experiment was Stapp’s insatiable desire to find a way for pilots flying at high altitudes and at speeds near the speed of sound to eject safely in the event of an emergency. It was thought such an emergency would result in automatic death if a pilot attempted to bail out. Either way, the outcome could be disastrous. But Stapp believed survival could be accomplished but there was only one way to prove his idea. And the sled was the answer.

            Named “The Sonic Wind,” the craft was equipped with nine rockets. Stapp made several previous runs on the sled over time and increasing speed accordingly. After much testing he made his final run. Climbing into the seat of the open air cockpit he fastened his special designed safety harness, lowered his head and activated a camera that recorded his unprotected face. Instantly the rockets fired off and he was sent speeding down the railway.

            When he hit the end of the run the sled was almost instantly stopped by a water pool designed for such an event. Cameras recorded what happened. The pictures can still be seen on programs as the History Channel and some scientific shows. The pictures show how his face was completely distorted, his mouth nearly pulled out of his jaws and his eyes bulging almost out of their sockets. In seconds he came to a complete stop and people rushed to aid him.

During the run an Air Force T-33 jet was overhead recording the run. As the sled hit full speed it actually passed the airplane like a speeding bullet. “He went by me like I was standing still and I was going 350 miles per hour,” recalled Joe Kittinger pilot of the chase plane.

Reaching the scene emergency crews found Stapp conscious and great pain. Lifting him gently from the craft they had to escort him to an ambulance since he couldn’t see. It would be a few days before he would regain his sight. What he experienced was what a pilot ejecting at a speed of Mach 1.6 at 40,000 feet would encounter. He proved a man could survive such an ordeal.

Safety was his passion. Stapp invented harnesses that would hold passengers safely enabling them to survive crashes that before would have killed them. He invented ejection systems that have saved unaccountable number of airmen from destroyed aircraft. One of his inventions proved his personal salvation.

I recall taking with this remarkable man about ejection systems and his recount of an incident that nearly killed him.

He said that he was riding as a passenger in a Lockheed T-33 jet trainer. They had just taken off and the wheels were retracted when suddenly the airplane suffered a “flame out.” The airplane was at an altitude of only a few feet off the runway when the engine failed. Instantly both he and the pilot hit the ejection lever and shot into space. “I recall going up and separating from the seat and the parachute opening up just as my feet touched the ground,” he said with a grin. It doesn’t get closer than that!

But there were other hazards associated with high altitude bailout as well. Stapp showed pictures of one unfortunate pilot who ejected when he was in a thunderstorm. His body was riddled with hundreds of punctures that killed him from hailstones. He was flying at nearly 600 miles an hour when he got out of the stricken airplane. He could have survived the bailout but the hailstones were like bullets instantly killing him.

What this remarkable scientist did for aviation and the automobile industry in the development of safety devices is history in itself. After his retirement he settled in at Almogordo N.M. where he remained until his death at the age of 89.