Kittinger's LONELY LEAP (1961) and Murphy's First Law of Physics

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Sun Apr 11 00:00:24 UTC 2004


THE LONG, LONELY LEAP
by Captain Joseph W. Kittinger, Jr., USAF
with Martin Caidin
with a foreword by Colonel John Paul Stapp, USAF
and an epilogue by Captain Marvin Feldstein, USAF
New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc.
1961

   I was going through some skydiving stuff when this showed up.  It's well worth reading.
   Murphy's First Law of Physics?  He had others in 1961?


Pg. 77:  I became a rabid and confirmed "balloonatic";...

Pg. 78:  On one three-passenger flight we received a most practical demonstration of Murphy's First Law--"_What Can Go Wrong Will Go Wrong_."  perhaps Murphy came along as an unseen fourth passenger.
   (...)
   To absorb the shock of another landing we stood up, knees flexed--only Murphy threw in a forward ground speed for which we failed to compensate.

Pg. 159:  Next came a "bunjee," or winter-type cotton two-piece suit of long underwear.

Pg. 160:  My next garment we called the "horse collar", a neck ring with a rubber gasket that slips down over the head and forms a gasket seal around the neck.

Pg. 161:  Army arctic boots--insulated "Lil Abner" boots made of rubber--were tugged on, laced up and tied.

Pg. 183:  Of one thing we were certain.  Excelsior I provided a beautiful demonstration of the effects of Murphy's First Law of Physics--"Anything that can go wrong--will go wrong."

Pg. 184:  If the teeth of the clamp slipped once, then they could slip again.  Frank believed quite strongly in "Murphy" and his statutes.

Pg. 198:  No--almost everything.  I would soon be given, to my dismay, another lesson in the application of Murphy's Law.



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