Ford Mustang takes out of this world trip
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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.
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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.