Obituary: Felix Baumgartner, skydiver

Extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner was the first skydiver to fall faster than the speed of sound during a 38.6km leap through the stratosphere. Known as "Fearless Felix", Baumgartner stunned the world in 2012 when he became the first human to break the sound barrier with only his body. He wore a pressurised suit and jumped from a capsule hoisted more than 39km above Earth by a giant helium balloon over New Mexico. The Austrian topped out at 1357.6kmh — the equivalent of 1.25 times the speed of sound — during a nine-minute descent. A life-long daredevil, the one-time army paratrooper made thousands of jumps from planes, bridges, skyscrapers and famed landmarks, including the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil. In 2003, he flew across the English Channel in a carbon fibre wing after being dropped from a plane and in recent years, he performed with The Flying Bulls as a helicopter stunt pilot in shows across Europe. Baumgartner died on July 17 from a cardiac arrest during a powered paragliding flight, aged 56. — Allied Media/agencies