Superman may be faster than a speeding bullet, but the fastest man in the sky in our universe comes from Austria, not Krypton. Felix Baumgartner, an Austrian daredevil, successfully completed the Red Bull Stratos project during which he jumped out of a helium balloon and broke the sound barrier on his way down.
Felix Baumgartner reached a speed of 833.9 miles per hour, becoming the first person ever to break the sound barrier without vehicular help. He did this by jumping out at an incredible altitude of 128,097 feet.
Despite coming 14 seconds short of the world record held by his mentor, USAF Colonel Joseph Kittinger (who set the record back in 1960 with a freefall time of 4 minutes 36 seconds) reactions from the Twittersphere show that people around the world were impressed with the Austrian's feat.
"That Felix Baumgartner is one cool dude, congratulations to him and his team!" - Astro_Mike
"The footage from Felix Baumgartner's chest cam from yesterday's #spacejump is totally amazing" - BenThePCGuy
"Feeling pretty inspired today, thanks to Felix Baumgartner's amazing feat!" - SpotifyPlaylist
"Well impressed with crazy Felix Baumgartner. Remember daring myself to jump last 3 stairs instead of 2 as a kid. He must have felt amazing." - MBrundleF1
Others took the time to play around with the daredevil's achievement:
"Felix Baumgartner did more than just the phenomenal jump, he made people like me everywhere feel better about their stupid names." - Isitthattime
"Gonna recreate the Felix Baumgartner drop in Brighton with a Tesco bag, a tampon string and an ant." - JamesHadouken
"So, Felix Baumgartner space jumped and broke the sound barrier. I peeled a hard boiled egg in 2 peels today. We're basically the same person." - JeanGreasy
"Felix Baumgartner sky dived from space & broke a world record. I just dropped my sandwich on the floor & then cried." - ThisPartyisLame
In the end, however, perhaps it's Felix Baumgartner's own tweet that sums up the dive best:
"Learn to love what you've been taught to fear." - Felix Baumgartner