Did Joe Kittinger break the sound barrier when he performed his 19-mile jump?

QUESTION: Did Joe Kittinger break the sound barrier when he performed his 19-mile jump?

For years, the record for the highest freefall parachute jump was held by U.S. Air Force Captain Joseph Kittinger.

Over Tularosa, New Mexico, on August 16, 1960, he stepped out of a balloon at a height of 102,800ft (19.5 miles) for a free fall of 85,800ft (16.3 miles) lasting four minutes 38 seconds. During this time, he reached a top speed of 625.2mph.

Yet this wasn’t enough to reach the speed of sound, which is 760.98mph at sea level and 659.78mph above 36,098ft.

Kittinger’s achievement stood for over 50 years until October 14, 2012, when Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner made a freefall jump from a height of 127,852ft (24.2 miles).

A lack of air resistance at height meant he reached 843.6mph, thus becoming the first person to break the sound barrier while in freefall, one of several world records set that day. 

On October 24, 2014, Baumgartner’s record for the highest freefall parachute jump was broken by Alan Eustace, then Google’s senior vice president, who jumped from a height of 135,899ft (25.7 miles).

Tim Mickleburgh, Grimsby, Lincolnshire.

QUESTION: Who is credited with inventing the first karaoke machine?

The first true karaoke machine is usually credited to Japan’s Daisuke Inoue. In the 1960s Inoue worked as a hiki-katari, a musician who specialised in nightclub singalongs, whose job was to enhance the limited singing abilities of his inebriated customers. This was where the word karaoke came from: it was a compound of the Japanese kara ‘empty’ and okesutora ‘orchestra’.

To satisfy the demand for his services, in 1971 Inoue invented the 8 Juke, a coin-operated eight-cassette deck connected to a microphone and, crucially, featuring a primitive reverb to help mask singers’ deficiencies.

Earlier efforts, such as Shigeichi Negishi’s Sparko Box, were singalong devices without sound improvement, so it was Inoue’s invention that laid the foundation for the karaoke industry.

Andy Webber, Chelmsford, Essex.

QUESTION: Do any nations take the matronym for the surname?

Further to the earlier answer, Filipinos are automatically given their mother’s maiden name as a middle name. For children born out of wedlock and not recognised by the father, the child, by law, must carry the mother’s surname.

Carla Smith, Painswick, Gloucestershire.

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Write to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Daily Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or email charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk