| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
Representing  United States | ||
| Women's Parachuting | ||
| World Championships | ||
 | 2000 Toba, Japan | Overall Individual Style and Accuracy |
Cheryl Stearns (born 14 July 1955 in Albuquerque, New Mexico [1] ) is an American skydiver.
She won the bronze medal in Women's Overall Individual Style and Accuracy at the XXV World Parachuting Championships in Japan in 2000.
Stearns made her first parachute jump in 1971 at the age of 17 in Coolidge, Arizona. [2] [3]
In 1977 she became the first female member of the Golden Knights, the U.S. Army's elite parachute team. She served two three-year tours. [4] She served two active duty hitches with the Golden Knights in her military career. [5] She retired from the army after 29 years of service as a master sergeant.
She earned a bachelor of science in aviation administration and a master of aeronautical science degrees from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University while managing both her military career and competitive skydiving. [6]
Stearns began breaking world records and parachuting competitively early in her career, winning her first U.S. National Championship in 1977. [7] [8] She would go onto win the gold medal in the category "Overall, Women" at the World Championships in 1978 and 1994. [9] She also holds the record for most parachute jumps made in a 24-hour period by a woman - 352 jumps from November 8–9, 1995. [10]
She began flying for Piedmont Airlines in 1986, which later became part of US Airways and then American Airlines. [2]
In the early 2000s, Stearns was involved in the StratoQuest project, which endeavored to break Joseph Kittinger's long-standing record for the highest altitude parachute jump ever, with a jump from at least 110,000 feet. [11] The space diving project was put on hold while attempting to find sponsors for the jump's $6.5 million budget. [12] By 2008 the project budget had risen to $8 million and was put on hold. [13]
She holds the record for the most total parachute jumps made by a woman - 21,000 jumps as of June 14, 2019. [14] By 2023, she had made over 22,000 jumps and has over 26,000 flying hours. [6]
In 2014, while preparing for her 20,000th parachute jump, Stearns was hit by a car while riding her bike. [15] She suffered a traumatic brain injury, which had a wide ranging impact on her memory and cognitive function. It took two years and one week after the accident for Stearns to recover her medical certification to fly.[ citation needed ] She retired as a commercial pilot in 2019. [16]
| Date | Type of Record | Performance | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 May 1998 | Accuracy Landing with 0.03 metre disc | 6 consecutive landings on dead center + 1 cm | [17] |
| 20 Jun 1994 | Lowest Single Round Score | 6.63 sec | [18] |
| 02 Jul 1986 | Accuracy Landing with 0.05 metre disc (group of 8) | 2.88 m at the 2nd round | [19] |
| 10 Nov 1984 | Night / Individual records, Accuracy Landing with 0.05 metre disc | 0,03 m at the 14th round | [20] |
| 15 Nov 1982 | Night / Individual records, Accuracy Landing with 0.05 metre disc | 0,01 m at the 12th round | [21] |
| 14 Nov 1982 | Day / Individual records, Accuracy Landing with 0.05 metre disc | 0.02 m at the 16th round | [22] |
BASE jumping is the recreational sport of jumping from fixed objects, using a parachute to descend safely to the ground. "BASE" is an acronym that stands for four categories of fixed objects from which one can jump: buildings, antennas, spans (bridges), and earth (cliffs). Participants exit from a fixed object such as a cliff, and after an optional freefall delay, deploy a parachute to slow their descent and land. A popular form of BASE jumping is wingsuit BASE jumping.
Freeflying is a skydiving discipline which began in the late 1980s, involving freefalling in various vertical orientations, as opposed to the traditional "belly-to-earth" orientation. The discipline is known to have originated when Olav Zipser began experimenting with non-traditional forms of bodyflight. Zipser founded the FreeFly Clowns as a two-person competitive team with Mike Vail in 1992. He was joined by Omar Alhegelan, Charles Bryan, and Stefania Martinengo in 1994. The FreeFly Clowns are also credited with opening the first school to teach freeflying, The First School of Modern SkyFlying.
Wingsuit flying is the sport of skydiving using a webbing-sleeved jumpsuit called a wingsuit to add webbed area to the diver's body and generate increased lift, which allows extended air time by gliding flight rather than just free falling. The modern wingsuit, first developed in the late 1990s, uses a pair of fabric membranes stretched flat between the arms and flanks/thighs to imitate an airfoil, and often also between the legs to function as a tail and allow some aerial steering.
The term "air sports" covers a range of aerial activities, including air racing, aerobatics, aeromodelling, hang gliding, human-powered aircraft, parachuting, paragliding and skydiving.
Felix Baumgartner is an Austrian skydiver, daredevil and BASE jumper. He is widely known for jumping to Earth from a helium balloon from the stratosphere on 14 October 2012 and landing in New Mexico, United States, as part of the Red Bull Stratos project. Doing so, he set world records for skydiving an estimated 39 km (24 mi), reaching an estimated top speed of 1,357.64 km/h (843.6 mph), or Mach 1.25. He became the first person to break the sound barrier relative to the surface without vehicular power on his descent. He broke skydiving records for exit altitude, vertical freefall distance without a drogue parachute, and vertical speed without a drogue. Though he still holds the two latter records, the first was broken two years later, when on 24 October 2014, Alan Eustace jumped from 135,890 feet with a drogue.
Accuracy landing is one of the oldest skydiving disciplines, in which skydivers attempt to land as closely as possible to a predetermined target.
In the United States, skydiving is a self-regulated sport, which means skydivers, in the US, voluntarily follow a set of basic safety requirements established by the U.S. Parachute Association. Federal requirements can be found in the Federal Aviation Regulations. Most of the regulations concern the aircraft, pilot and rules of flight. However, 14 CFR Part 105, "Parachute Operations" regulates when and where jumps may be made and designates the requirements for parachute equipment and packing. For example, 14 CFR Part 105 requires the person packing either the main chute or the reserve parachute to be a certificated rigger, which means he or she has taken an FAA-approved training course and has passed rigorous FAA testing.
Similar to skydiving, space diving is the act of jumping from an aircraft or spacecraft in near space and falling towards Earth. The Kármán line is a common definition as to where space begins, 100 km (62 mi) above sea level. This definition is accepted by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), which is an international standard setting and record-keeping body for aeronautics and astronautics. The United States Air Force uses 50 nautical miles to award astronaut wings.
Lisa Olsen is a Canadian-American skydiver.
Parachuting and skydiving is a method of transiting from a high point in an atmosphere to the ground or ocean surface with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or parachutes.
James Maxwell McCormick is an American speaker, author, and professional skydiver who is known for his expertise in intelligent risk-taking and innovation. He is founder of The Research Institute for Risk Intelligence, holds ten skydiving world records, and was a member of an international expedition that skydived to the North Pole. He served three years in the Reagan Administration in Washington, DC before returning to the private sector where, among other engagements, he served as Chief Operating Officer (COO) at design firm Anshen+Allen Architects.
Red Bull Stratos was a high-altitude skydiving project involving Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner. On 14 October 2012, Baumgartner flew approximately 39 kilometres (24 mi) into the stratosphere over New Mexico, United States, in a helium balloon before free falling in a pressure suit and then parachuting to Earth. The total jump, from leaving the capsule to landing on the ground, lasted approximately ten minutes. While the free fall was initially expected to last between five and six minutes, Baumgartner deployed his parachute after 4 minutes and 19 seconds.
Roberta Mancino is an Italian skydiver, BASE jumper, wingsuit flyer and international model. She has participated in more than 12,500 skydives and won several awards and world records. She has gone on four skydives while completely naked, and on five occasions her parachute did not open in mid-jump. In 2010, Mancino was named the World's Sexiest Female Athlete by the magazine Men's Fitness.
Skydive Empuriabrava is the brand that has been commercially operating Empuriabrava Aerodrome since 1985. Since it began operating, its main activity has been skydiving although it also offers photo flights, aerial and tourist advertising, and runs a school of aviation for private pilots.
H. Truesdell Smith—known variously as "H. T. Smith", "Henry Truesdell Smith", "Harold Truesdell Smith", or "Daredevil Smitty" but best known as "Smitty the Jumper"—was an American exhibition parachutist and skydiver of the 1920s and 1930s. He made periodic returns to skydiving starting in the late 1950s, jumping in every subsequent decade until his death, becoming widely known as "the oldest living skydiver", a title he claimed until his death in 1995 at the age of 96.
Shital Mahajan Rane is an Indian extreme sportsperson, skydiver and the holder of eight world records in the sport. She is known as the first woman to perform an accelerated free fall jump over Antarctica from 10,000 feet, the youngest woman to jump over both the North and South Poles, and the first woman jumper to perform it without trials. The Government of India honored Mahajan in 2011, with the fourth highest civilian award of Padma Shri.
Rachel Thomas is an Indian skydiver. She was the first Indian woman to skydive from 7,000 ft over the North Pole on 20 April 2002, to commemorate 150 years of the Indian Railways.
Odette Rousseau was a French parachutist. She qualified at the age of 23 and became French national champion in 1953 and a world champion in 1954. Rousseau made a world record jump on 25 August 1955 from a height of 8,721 metres. She later attended many Fédération Aéronautique Internationale committees and was appointed an officer of the Legion of Honour.
The Skydive Chicago Airport is a skydiving resort and camping ground in Ottawa, Illinois in the United States. It operates a private airport, Skydive Chicago Airport and offers outdoor skydiving and is spectator-friendly. There is an on-site cafe and gift/pro shop for all guests. For skydiving customers, it offers camping, RV parking, and an auditorium. The airport is located on the Fox River. The resort claims to operate the largest fleet of skydiving aircraft in the midwestern United States.