Skydiving

[Andetch]

I searched the forums, and didn't find exact references to this.....

Anyone ever gone skydiving? I discovered this when I was playing with super fast planes and my design broke up mid flight resulting in my pilot being in a cockpit that was not attached to anything at 20kms. Remembering stories of WWI pilots (who were never issued parachutes as top brass believed they encouraged cowardice) faced with similar situations I decided to exit the cockpit, and to my surprise the pilot was okay after falling into the sea... It seems to me that as long as the vehicle is subsonic you can get away without burning up. Supersonic skydives tend to end up in the kerbal disappearing in a puff of logic.

Attached are the screenshots I took.

http://imgur.com/a/DmoqO

Edited March 16, 2017 by Andetch
pictures added correctly

[The Optimist]

The kerbals have a ridiculously high impact tolerance of around 30 m/s, while their terminal velocity in Kerbin's atmosphere is around 25 m/s.

[Andetch]

Well whatever the numbers (I am more seeing what I can actually do rather than what the numbers say) you gotta hit the water...... Trust me on this *moves to hide the memorial to all the kerbals that tested this theory. Usually hit around 50 m/s, and they do need the jetpack to slow down.

[Gaarst]

Kerbals have more chances to survive splashdown when hitting the water head-on. Don't know about landing though.

[Andetch]

Yeah, I have discovered they have reinforced helmets...... But at around 50m/s or under (straight down, if you have forward speed these figures can change) they can go into the sea feet first. This revelation could mean the end of needing parachutes on craft coming back to Kerbin!

[fourfa]

Heh, interesting idea.  The world's first manned spacecraft - USSR's Vostok - did not include a manned landing; the pilot bailed out after re-entry and parachuted solo.  Your kerbal could EVA in the low atmosphere, grab science reports, and ditch.  But just to save the cost (funds and dV) of some chutes, seems unnecessary