Skydiver aims to jump through sound barrier

An Australian former commando is hoping to become the first person to break the sound barrier unaided when he jumps out of a high-altitude balloon and parachutes 39,500 metres, or more than four times the height of Mount Everest, to Earth.

Rodd Millner, 36, plans to free-fall over the central Australian desert in a specially designed spacesuit as part of a project organised with the Australian military to test the limits of human endurance at high altitudes.

He will travel at speeds of up to 1,300km/h, or about Mach 1.4, and if successful will become the fastest unaided man, the highest skydiver, the longest free-faller and the highest balloonist.

The current world record for the longest free-fall was set by Russian Eugene Andreyev, who jumped from 23,100 metres over Volsk, in the then Soviet Union, in November 1962.

An unofficial record had been set two years earlier by American Joe Kittinger, who jumped from 31,000 metres but he used stability devices, which meant his achievement went unrecognised by skydiving officials.

The Australian project, known as Space Jump, will see Mr Millner, a veteran of an Australian army reserve special forces unit, free-fall for 6.5 minutes after a two-hour ascent in a high-altitude helium balloon. The balloon, with a gondola slung beneath it, will be big enough to accommodate two jumbo jets side by side.

Mr Millner will release his parachute at 1,500 metres, from where it will take him two minutes to float to Earth and land in a drop zone within a 32km radius of his launch site, in the desert outside Alice Springs.