Flew the first Manhigh mission; made a record free-fall in Project Excelsior.
Joseph Kittinger, Jr. was born in Tampa, Florida on July 27, 1928. He became fascinated with planes at a very young age and soloed in a Piper Cub by the time he was 17. After growing up near Orlando, Florida, he attended Florida University for a year and a half then applied for Air Force cadet training. He received his pilot wings in 1950.
Kittinger was a NATO test pilot in Germany until 1953, when he was assigned to the Air Force Missile Development Center at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. At Holloman, Captain Kittinger flew experimental jet fighters and participated in aerospace medical research. In December 1954, he flew the T-33 observation plane that monitored the rocket sled experiment of aircraft medicine pioneer Colonel John Paul Stapp in which Stapp traveled 632 miles per hour to test how gravitational stress affected the human body.