It rocketed up to a mere 55, 000 feet before shutting down and gliding back to terra firma, an important first step before a full-altitude flight later this year and planned commercial flights in 2015.
On an April 20, 1962 flight achieving an altitude of 207, 000 feet, he held the nose up too long during descent, causing the craft to bounce off the atmosphere back up to 140, 000 feet.
The devices help pilots avoid "terrain" by coupling global-positioning technology with flight data on speed, altitude and other readings, and a database containing the topography of the planet.
The altitude is also near the flight limit for some U.S. combat helicopters, officials said.
First, the ducted fan design allows the car to achieve the speed and maneuverability of a helicopter -- 155 mph, 12, 000-foot altitude, two hours of flight time, vertical take off and landing -- but removes the dangers of exposed rotors, allowing the "car" to sidle up to buildings for rescue missions, or coexist in close quarters with other vehicles.
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Wednesday's explosion occurred at a substantially higher altitude, three minutes into the flight.
Pilots should be trained on how to handle this event and a high-altitude stall with better technical instruction and flight simulator programs, the report said.
On our maiden voyage, about three hours into the flight, the plane began to slow down and reduce altitude so that it could land in a small airport to refuel.
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It was a squadron of Army Air Force bombers from the airfield on Tinian Island, across the channel, and they cast their furious vibrations down upon us as they gained altitude and made a slow banking turn in their flight toward Japan.
The craft, partially owned by Virgin group overlord Sir Richard Branson and the Abu Dhabi-based investment group PJC, took off earlier today from its berth at Mojave Air and Space Port in California, where carrier-craft WhiteKnightTwo ferried it to a 47, 000 ft altitude after which its own rockets kicked in for a supersonic flight.
The craft, partially owned by Virgin group overload Sir Richard Branson and the Abu Dhabi-based investment group PJC, took off earlier today from its berth at Mojave Air and Space Port in California, where carrier-craft WhiteKnightTwo ferried it to a 47, 000 ft altitude after which its own rockets kicked in for a supersonic flight.
SpaceShipII is expected to take passengers to an altitude of 68.3 miles in just a two-hour flight that includes a four-minute period of weightlessness.
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Adidas say altitude is the main factor affecting the way the ball behaves in flight and have blamed players for not practising enough with it before the tournament.
It comes a week after Iran said it had successfully sent a monkey to an altitude of some 120 km (75 miles) for a sub-orbital flight.
The FBI expanded on the FAA report, saying in a statement that the Alitalia flight from Rome was roughly three miles from runway 31R when the incident occurred at an altitude of approximately 1, 750 feet.
Qantas Flight 72 was flying from Singapore to the western Australian city of Perth when a sudden change of altitude caused abrasions, contusions, fractures and other injuries.
You have to fast-forward all the way to October 4th, 2004, the moment that pilot Brian Binnie crested at an altitude of 112km in SpaceShipOne, to find a similarly important moment in the history of private space flight.
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