This Flight Will Get You To The Edge Of Space
Stop the world I want to get off!
I’ve had enough of COVID, Trump, anti-landlord legislation, Trump, ultra woke sensibilities and Trump – honestly how much PR does the guy need? I’m outta here, I’m getting off this planet and leaving all this BS behind…
Although, I’d STILL like to watch the rest of the Queen’s Gambit and see the Warriors win the occasional game (apparently it happens) and they’re having Dollar Shooters down at the pub on Tuesday again so it’d be a shame to miss out…
So, I guess I’m in a quandary, I want to get well clear of this dumbass Earth yet still be able to come back again. If only there was a way to do that…
Actually, there is! Thanks to the extraordinary Mikoyan MiG-29 Fulcrum we can get well away from the surface of the Earth – up to 22km above the top of the Sky Tower which is the zone where the blue sky ends and the black stuff that goes on forever starts. Only astronauts and unmanned spacecraft go higher than this and there’s absolutely no guarantees that any of them will come back again – so tbh 22km above the Earth is plenty far enough. Then, when the Warriors are about to kick off, we can descend again, do a few loops of triumph and come back to kiss the ground again having got a bit more perspective on life, the universe and everything.
Image credit: Bundeswehr-Fotos
These flights are called to The Edge of Space and they are completed by a fourth-generation twin-engine jet fighter designed in the empire of the Soviet Union itself back in the bad old Cold War days to combat the American F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon. To get up to a height of 20,000m, the Fulcrum clocks in at Mach 1.8 and climbs at a rate of 330m/s in a ballistic flight path. In other words, you are being fired into space like a rocket, which frankly the English language has no words to describe.
In order to be able to go on an Edge of Space flight you will need to pass a medical exam, which is not surprising considering the G forces involved – potentially up to 8 or 9 – particularly if the pilot decides to perform some acrobatics when the plane is at a lower altitude. Not to unduly freak you out, but you will also need to wear a high-altitude suit – in the (hopefully) unlikely case you have to be ejected at 2222km/h and 20km above the Earth’s surface. No worries then.
Interested in getting as far away from Earth as humanly possible? The good news is; MiGFLUG – catchy name – is a Swiss outfit that offer a variety of relevant packages including Edge of Space, Zero Gravity and various jet acrobatic flights using the MiG-29 and other aircraft. The bad news is you’ll have to travel to Europe or North America in order to be able to complete your flight, which in these tedious COVID times, is easier said than done. However, you will also need to book well in advance, so perhaps by the time your booking matures, the world will be back to something resembling normality again. The prices are not too bad – in the thousands rather than tens of thousands – which, considering the once-in-a-lifetime/Bucket List nature of such flights, is pretty reasonable. See you up there some day soon.