Felix Baumgartner – “I have always had this dream of flying”
Can our time still produce heroes – real winners whose deeds defy the transitory nature of our social networking age; people with the courage to push the boundaries and whose incomparable achievements guarantee them a lasting place in the annals of history?
“The emotional value we have supplied is fully comparable to that of the moon landing” says Felix Baumgartner of his jump of 36 km from the stratosphere to earth. On 14 October 2012 he supplied the answer to the above question in the most dramatic way possible. As the first human being, he broke the sound barrier in free fall and three additional records at the same time: the highest manned balloon flight, the highest speed ever reached in free fall and the longest distance ever covered in free fall.
The media interest was enormous. As many as 200 TV stations and networks reported live from the Red Bull Stratos event. The ORF achieved the highest ratings since the first interview with Natascha Kampusch in 2006. With more than three million viewers in Austria via ORF and Servus TV, Baumgartner’s jump was the most viewed live event since the introduction of Teletest. Meanwhile at peak periods YouTube live streaming was watched simultaneously by up to eight million people around the globe – to date the highest audience ever reached.