Alan Eustace
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Robert Alan Eustace (born 1956/1957) is an American computer scientist who served as Senior Vice President of Engineering at
Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
until retiring in 2015. On October 24, 2014, he made a
free-fall In Newtonian physics, free fall is any motion of a body where gravity is the only force acting upon it. In the context of general relativity, where gravitation is reduced to a space-time curvature, a body in free fall has no force acting on it ...
jump from the stratosphere, breaking
Felix Baumgartner Felix Baumgartner (; born 20 April 1969) 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 par ...
's world record. The jump was from and lasted 15 minutes, an altitude record that stands .


Early years

The son of a
Martin Marietta The Martin Marietta Corporation was an American company founded in 1961 through the merger of Glenn L. Martin Company and American-Marietta Corporation. In 1995, it merged with Lockheed Corporation to form Lockheed Martin. History Martin Mari ...
engineer, Eustace grew up in
Pine Hills, Florida Pine Hills is a census-designated place (CDP) and unincorporated subdivision in Orange County, Florida, United States, west of Orlando. Per the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 66,111. It is a part of the Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, Flori ...
, then a working-class suburb of
Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...
, where small ranch houses had been built for employees of the Martin Marietta Corporation. After graduating from
Maynard Evans High School Maynard Evans High School is a high school located in Orlando, Florida, United States, served by Orange County Public Schools. The school's name is often shortened to "Evans High School" or "E-HIGH", and the mascot for the school are the Trojans. ...
in 1974, he received a debate scholarship from
Valencia College Valencia College is a public college in Orlando, Florida. It is part of the Florida College System. The college was founded in 1967 as Valencia Junior College and changed its name in 2010 because the academic scope of the school had expanded to i ...
and attended it for a year before transferring to
Florida Technological University The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State University S ...
—now known as the
University of Central Florida The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State University ...
—to major in mechanical engineering. As a university student, Eustace worked part-time selling popcorn and ice cream in Fantasyland and working on the monorail at
Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, th ...
. However, after taking a class on
computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...
, he decided to switch majors and ended up completing three academic degrees in the field, including a doctorate in 1984.


Professional career

After graduation, Eustace worked briefly for Silicon Solutions, a
startup A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...
in
Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...
, before joining
Digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals **Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...
,
Compaq Compaq Computer Corporation (sometimes abbreviated to CQ prior to a 2007 rebranding) was an American information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced ...
and then HP's Western Research Laboratory, where he worked 15 years on pocket computing, chip multi-processors, power and energy management, internet performance, and frequency and voltage scaling. In the mid-1990s, he worked with Amitabh Srivastava on
ATOM Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons bound to the nucleus. The nucleus is made of one or more protons and a number of neutrons. Only the most common variety of hydrogen has no neutrons. Every solid, liquid, gas, and ...
, a binary-code instrumentation system that forms the basis for a wide variety of program analysis and computer architecture analysis tools. These tools had a profound influence on the EV5, EV6 and
EV7 chip The Alpha 21364, code-named "Marvel", also known as EV7 is a microprocessor developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), later Compaq Computer Corporation, that implemented the Alpha instruction set architecture (ISA). History The Alpha 21 ...
designs. Eustace was appointed head of the laboratory in 1999, but left it three years later to join
Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
, then a four-year-old startup. At Google, he worked as Senior Vice President of Engineering until he retired from that section of Google on March 27, 2015. Eustace is currently Technical Advisor at Opener Aerospace, sometimes giving intervie

about their electric VTOL aircraft, the
Opener BlackFly The Opener BlackFly is an American electric-powered VTOL personal air vehicle designed by Canadian engineer Marcus Leng. It was publicly revealed in 2018, after nine years of development. The aircraft is intended to be supplied complete and r ...
. In the course of his professional career, Eustace co-authored nine publications and appeared as co-inventor in ten patents.


Stratosphere jump

In 2011, Eustace decided to pursue a stratosphere jump and met with
Taber MacCallum Taber MacCallum is the co-founder and co-CEO of Space Perspective, a human spaceflight company planning to take people and payloads to the edge of space by balloon, and the former Chairman of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF). He is co ...
, one of the founding members of
Biosphere 2 Biosphere 2 is an American Earth system science research facility located in Oracle, Arizona. Its mission is to serve as a center for research, outreach, teaching, and lifelong learning about Earth, its living systems, and its place in the univers ...
, to begin preparations for the project. Over the next three years, the Paragon Space Development technical team designed and redesigned many of the components of his parachute and life-support system. The Paragon team integrated systems for the Stratospheric Explorer mission code named StratEx. On October 24, 2014, Eustace made a jump from the
stratosphere The stratosphere () is the second layer of the atmosphere of the Earth, located above the troposphere and below the mesosphere. The stratosphere is an atmospheric layer composed of stratified temperature layers, with the warm layers of air ...
, breaking
Felix Baumgartner Felix Baumgartner (; born 20 April 1969) 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 par ...
's 2012 world record. The launch-point for his jump was from an abandoned runway in
Roswell, New Mexico Roswell () is a city in, and the County seat, seat of, Chaves County, New Mexico, Chaves County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Chaves County forms the entirety of the List of micropolitan areas in New Mexico, Roswell micropolitan area. As of ...
, where he began his
gas balloon A gas balloon is a balloon that rises and floats in the air because it is filled with a gas lighter than air (such as helium or hydrogen). When not in flight, it is tethered to prevent it from flying away and is sealed at the bottom to prevent t ...
-powered ascent early that morning. He reached a reported maximum altitude of , but the final number submitted to the
World Air Sports Federation In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...
was . The balloon used for the feat was manufactured by the Balloon Facility of the
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) is a public deemed research university located in Mumbai, India that is dedicated to basic research in mathematics and the sciences. It is a Deemed University and works under the umbrella of the D ...
, Hyderabad, India. Eustace in his pressure suit hung tethered under the balloon, without the kind of capsule used by Felix Baumgartner. Eustace started his fall by using an explosive device to separate from the
helium balloon A gas balloon is a balloon that rises and floats in the air because it is filled with a gas lighter than air (such as helium or hydrogen). When not in flight, it is tethered to prevent it from flying away and is sealed at the bottom to prevent t ...
. His descent to Earth lasted 4 minutes and 27 seconds and stretched nearly with peak speeds exceeding , setting new world records for the highest free-fall jump and total free-fall distance . However, because Eustace's jump involved a
drogue parachute A drogue parachute is a parachute designed for deployment from a rapidly-moving object. It can be used for various purposes, such as to decrease speed, to provide control and stability, or as a pilot parachute to deploy a larger parachute. ...
, while Baumgartner's did not, their vertical speed and free-fall distance records remain in different categories. Unlike Baumgartner, Eustace, a twin-engine jet pilot, was not widely known as a daredevil prior to his jump. Eustace's world record jump was featured in two episodes of '' STEM in 30'', a television show geared towards middle-school students by the
National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the Nat ...
.


See also

*
Space diving 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 defi ...
* Yevgeni Andreyev *
Felix Baumgartner Felix Baumgartner (; born 20 April 1969) 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 par ...
*
Charles "Nish" Bruce Charles Christian Cameron "Nish" Bruce, (8 August 1956 – 8 January 2002) was a British Army soldier. Bruce served with the British Army's Parachute Regiment and Special Air Service. He deployed during the Falklands War and as part of Operat ...
* Michel Fournier *
Joseph Kittinger Joseph William Kittinger II (July 27, 1928 – December 9, 2022) served as a United States Air Force (USAF) officer from 1950 to 1978. He was a fighter pilot who earned Command Pilot status and retired as a colonel. He held the world record for ...
*
Nick Piantanida Nicholas John Piantanida (August 15, 1932 – August 29, 1966) was an American amateur parachute jumper who reached with his ''Strato Jump II'' balloon on February 2, 1966, flying a crewed balloon higher than anyone before, a record that stood ...
*
Cheryl Stearns Cheryl Stearns (born 14 July 1955) 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. Life She received her education from Embry Ri ...
*
Steve Truglia Steve Truglia (3 October 1962 – 17 November 2016) was a stunt coordinator, stunt performer and action unit director in the UK. He became a TED (conference), TED speaker in 2009. Truglia died while attempting to abseil from a helicopter. Car ...
*
Olav Zipser Olav Zipser (born 12 March 1966, Simmern, West Germany) is a Sports Emmy Award winning professional skydiver. Zipser launched the freeflying movement of the early 1990s when he began experimenting with non-traditional forms of body flight. Sinc ...
*
Victor Prather Lieutenant commander (United States), Lieutenant Commander Victor Alonzo Prather Jr. (June 4, 1926 – May 4, 1961) was an American flight surgeon famous for taking part in "Project RAM", a government project to develop the space suit. On May 4 ...


References


Further reading

* Leidich, Jared ''The Wild Black Yonder, The Inside Story of the Secret Trip to the Edge of Earth's Atmosphere for the Highest Balloon Flight and Skydive of All Time''. Stratospheric Publishing, 2016.


External links

*
"I leapt from the stratosphere. Here’s how I did it" (TED Talk, March 2015)
* movie about record setting space jump ''14 Minutes from Earth'' (2016) {{DEFAULTSORT:Eustace, Alan 1950s births American computer scientists American skydivers Google employees Living people People from Orange County, Florida University of Central Florida alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Space diving Flight altitude record holders American aviation record holders Laureus World Sports Awards winners