The first ever jump from the stratosphere to the North Pole was carried out by a group of Russian parachutists. Cosmonaut, Hero of Russia Mikhail Kornienko, instructor pilot Alexander Lynnik, and space technology engineer Denis Efremov jumped from a height of more than 10 km and landed near the Russian polar station "Borneo" at the North Pole of the Earth. They dedicated the heroic action to the anniversary of the first human spaceflight.
At about 9 a.m., the IL-76 with a team on board took off from Murmansk. After about 4 hours, the plane was in the area of the North Pole. Having chosen the best place to land, taking into account the direction of the wind, the group jumped out of the plane. The free fall lasted about two and a half minutes. Parachutes were deployed at a distance of about 1 km above the ground. Then, skillfully maneuvering, the stratonauts landed on the ice floe as close as possible to the point of 90 °N.
The idea to make such a jump belongs to Alexander Lynnik and Mikhail Kornienko. Both are members of the Russian Geographical Society. They are long-time friends, despite the fact that the first lives in Ufa, and the second in Moscow. Later, they were joined by Denis Efremov, whose company is engaged in stratospheric flights.
The stratosphere is the next layer of the atmosphere after the troposphere, where the ozone layer is located, protecting all life on Earth from ultraviolet radiation. It is believed that the stratosphere begins at an altitude of 11 km and extends to about 50 km from the surface of our planet. However, as Alexander Lynnik clarified, in the area of the poles, the boundary of the stratosphere begins at an altitude of 8 km. This is due to the fact that the Earth is not a smooth geometrically correct sphere in shape, but a geoid: something like an ellipse.
It is physically impossible for a person to be in the stratosphere without special equipment. Firstly, the air is very thin. Secondly, it is very cold there: the temperature drops to – 55-60 °C. Moreover, during a rapid free fall (speed about 380 km/h), the temperature feels about -70 ° C.
The expedition members decided not to use spacesuits. Unable to maneuver, the person in it turns into a literal doll. Instead, the parachutists used gear of domestic production: soft overalls, glasses, heated gloves, and, of course, oxygen masks. The total weight of the equipment was 30 kg.
The expedition members began breathing pure oxygen on board the plane about an hour before the jump. It was necessary to "wash" all the nitrogen from the blood to avoid decompression with a sharp change in pressure during free fall.
And although skydiving from the stratosphere itself has ceased to be something unique, so far each of them has become an event, at least for the skydivers themselves.
Photo: Yuri Stolypin, participant of the RGS’s contest "The Most Beautiful Country"
The first such experiments in our country were related to the space program. In 1962, Evgeny Andreev and Peter Dolgov went up to a height of more than 25 km. The first one jumped at the 25.5 km mark and landed safely. His record lasted 60 years. But the fate of the second participant in the Soviet experiment turned out to be tragic. As a result of hitting his head on the hatch opening of the stratostat capsule (according to other sources, due to damage to the headset), Pyotr Dolgov died.
On October 14, 2012, Austrian extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner jumped from a height of 39 km and set the current world record. By the way, he could not surpass another achievement of the Soviet parachutist – the duration of free fall. Andreev was falling for more than 24 km, reaching a maximum speed of 900 km/h.
Ultra-high-altitude parachute jumps in the Arctic zone are very rare. So far, only one case has been known. Exactly four years ago, in April 2020, Russian parachutists from the special forces detachment of the Russian Armed Forces made a group parachute jump from a height of 10 km, landing on Franz Josef Land.
Since there are no small things in such a risky business as stratospheric jumps, earlier during the final practice, the members of the expedition made a landing from a height of 6 km in the middle lane to test equipment. And not in vain. According to Mikhail Kornienko, it suddenly turned out that the oxygen mask prevents you from lowering your head, and this is important for visual control of the maneuvering process in the air. They had to urgently look for a solution to this seemingly small technical problem.
The expedition has another notable aspect, perhaps also a record bid. Despite his excellent physical condition, Alexander Lynnik is 64 years old, and Mikhail Kornienko will turn the same age next week. They both have a lot of experience. Kornienko has been in orbit twice (176 and 340 days) and twice went into outer space (total operating time – 12 hours 17 minutes). Lynnik is an instructor pilot at a flight school in Ufa and a climber. He ascended Elbrus twice, was part of an Arctic expedition in 2013. By the way, at the same time he made a parachute jump on a drifting ice floe near the North Pole.
Denis Efremov, a junior member of the expedition, is a research engineer in the field of aircraft and equipment by education. He is the organizer of the project on stratospheric unmanned launches. He has made several dozen parachute jumps, and in addition, he is a climber, scuba diver, and a certified rescuer of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
The current stratospheric jump is not only an opportunity to set a record, but a kind of continuation of another heroic event. In August 2007, an expedition led by Artur Chilingarov, First Vice-President of the Russian Geographical Society, dived to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean at the North Pole on the “Mir” underwater vehicle and planted the flag of Russia. Now the symbolic vertical line across the top of the world will be completed by other members of the Russian Geographical Society, parachutists.
However, in addition to their patriotic goal, they also have a completely pragmatic goal: to test in practice several new domestic pieces of equipment for high-altitude jumps and stratospheric flights, including parachute systems, altimeters, beacons of the international satellite search and rescue system Cospas-Sarsat.
After the parachutists landed on the ice, a helicopter took off from the “Borneo” polar station. The task of the search team was to locate and evacuate the expedition members as quickly as possible in order to prevent them from hypothermia and meeting a polar bear. Fortunately, there were no surprises.
The polar station. Photo: Alexey Cherkasov, participant of the RGS’s contest "The Most Beautiful Country"
The “Borneo” station was founded more than 20 years ago on the initiative of the Russian Geographical Society. It is built annually for a period of one month in April on a drifting ice floe in the area of 89 °N, that is, several dozen kilometers from the North Pole. The "Borneo" still remains the closest point to the "top of the world" where people who study the Arctic live and work.
Now all the participants of the parachute expedition are in good health and in a great mood. The record was set and recorded by representatives of the Russian Book of Records.
Aivar Valeev