supersonic

Millions of people around the world observed an unbelievable feat yesterday as Felix Baumgartner jumped out of a balloon-slung capsule floating at the astonishing altitude of 128,097 feet and then safely landed in the record books.

Curiously, the best angle from the whole free fall jump so far -- Baumgartner's chest camera -- didn't make it to the general live-stream footage. The video from this perspective reveals just how terrifying and awe-inspiring our world looks at such extreme altitudes and the speeds (well upward of 700 mph -- or was that, um, downward?) at which he was traveling. … Read more

Latest update: October 15 at 5:38 a.m. PT

One false start was enough for Felix Baumgartner.

On Sunday, the 43-year-old extreme skydiver ascended to the upper reaches of the atmosphere above Roswell, N.M., in a bid to come racing back down in a supersonic freefall.

At first, Baumgartner's Red Bull Stratos team said that the unofficial top speed of the freefall was 1,137 kilometers per hour, or 706 miles per hour. Later, they raised that to 1,342.8 km/h, or 834.4 mph.

The team's expectation was that 690 mph would be … Read more

Felix Baumgartner will not attempt his stratospheric skydive tomorrow.

Weather conditions continue to be less than ideal for the mission, in which Baumgartner plans to set several records -- most dramatically, becoming the first person ever to fly, or in this case freefall, at supersonic speed without the protection of an aircraft fuselage around him. In making the attempt, if all were to go according to plan, he also would make the highest manned ascent with a balloon (120,000 feet, or just under 23 miles) to get to his jumping-off point, and the longest sustained freefall (an estimated 5 … Read more

Last update: 10:55 a.m. PT.

Felix Baumgartner wants to make history as the first person to achieve supersonic speed in freefall, but that won't happen today.

At about 10:45 a.m. PT, with Baumgartner in his capsule and his balloon just beginning to be inflated, the decision came to abort the mission because of gusting winds.

The liftoff had been scheduled to begin at about 5:30 a.m. PT, but was delayed as the weather conditions at the launch site in Roswell, N.M., failed to cooperate. Tomorrow's weather is apparently not looking favorable, … Read more

If you're going to try to zip through the air faster than the speed of sound -- without an airplane, and straight down to boot -- well, that's not something you rush into.

And it's been a long haul indeed for Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner, who for years now has been planning to make a historic skydive from higher than anyone's ever jumped, and faster too. As in supersonic fast.

Today, the team behind Baumgartner finally put a long-delayed date to the skydive: October 8. OK, actually, that's a tentative date, since the final green … Read more

Meet Bloodhound, the 1,000 mph supersonic car. Actually, its top speed is 1,050 mph, but when you're a couple hundred miles an hour faster than the speed of sound, most jets, and all other Land Speed record holders, who's counting?

A life-size replica of the Bloodhoud SCC was unveiled at the Farnborough International Airshow on Monday. The organization, which uses the supersonic car as a teaching vehicle to promote science education throughout schools in the U.K., also uploaded an animation of the Bloodhound's 133,000-hp propulsion system.

The Bloodhound will attempt to break the … Read more

Based on recent leaks, a pair of HTC handsets, the Supersonic and Incredible, appear all but ready to ship. The Google Android smartphones have appeared in the wild and they look like final products.

A handful of pictures of the Incredible trickled out early last week from a Twitter user known as DevDroid. As you can see in the image, the handset is black with red accents. Though the color scheme doesn't resemble anything else HTC has done lately, it does have an air of Verizon Wireless about it. According to rumors, the Incredible runs Android 2.1 with … Read more

Video speakers are becoming almost old hat in some product lines, but we've finally found a model that matches our decor at home and on the road. All hail the "Supersonic" boombox.

Not only will this sound machine take care of our entertainment needs--TV, DVD, CD, radio--but it also comes in a retro design (circa 1993) that makes us wonder where we put that "Best of Kool & The Gang" collection.

The $180 boombox has a 5-inch screen, but there's no mention of iPod or MP3 compatibility. That's OK with us, though, because … Read more