(Big Valley Ford)
The Ford Mustang may be partly named after an aircraft, but one has never flown like this.
Staff at Big Valley Ford in Stockton, Calif. recently strapped a 2015 Mustang model to a weather balloon and sent it aloft.
With a set of action cameras documenting the trip, the car took a 74 minute ride almost 21 miles high into the stratosphere, and just 18,000 feet shy of where Felix Baumgartner made his record-breaking supersonic jump from in 2012.
The stunt was meant to celebrate the Mustang’s 50th anniversary, and create some marketing buzz for the dealership, no doubt. Mission accomplished.
Of course, what goes up, must come down --- especially when it’s a car -- and after reaching its maximum altitude, the balloon burst and sent the Mustang spinning back down to earth before a parachute opened and slowed its descent enough to preserve the cameras.
A GPS transmitter led the team to the crash site, who tracked it down after a six-hour search.