Project Gutenberg 2025-05-24 Public domain in the USA. 129 Jamieson, Leland 1904 1941 Jamieson, Leland Shattuck Jamieson, Leland S. Molt, William Altitude $aChicago, IL :$bThe Consolidated Magazines Corporation, $c1929. Produced from the March, 1929 issue of Blue Book magazine. Roger Frank and Sue Clark "Altitude by Leland Jamieson" is an aviation adventure short story written in the early 20th century. The story centers on a free-balloon expert’s bid for an altitude record, highlighting the dangers of high-altitude flight, the necessity of precise equipment, and the thin line between mastery and catastrophe. Captain Conway prepares the giant hydrogen balloon Marie IV for a record-breaking ascent, aided by his sober, loyal crewman Kisner and the talkative, unreliable Welkfurn. A critical delay keeps a de-oiled, cold-proof clock from reaching the field in time, and Conway launches with a standard clock that soon freezes. As he climbs into the stratosphere, oxygen dwindles, paralysis creeps over his body, and the stopped clock robs him of his timing. At the peak, near death, he manages to trigger the rip-cord, causing a disastrous deflation; the balloon fails to parachute properly and plummets. Regaining just enough awareness near the ground, he bails out under his own parachute and survives. Rescued by Kisner and a chastened Welkfurn, he later reflects on the razor’s edge of his success—both the new record and his life saved by a last-moment escape. (This is an automatically generated summary.) 20250521185234jamieson 1929 US Reading ease score: 82.5 (6th grade). Easy to read. en Short stories Ballooning -- Fiction Parachuting -- Fiction PS Text Category: Short Stories Category: Adventure Category: American Literature 67862 2025-07-30T06:55:45.745736 text/html 43609 2025-05-24T00:13:29 text/html 927154 2025-07-30T06:55:49.052724 application/epub+zip 925918 2025-07-30T06:55:46.868781 application/epub+zip 310007 2025-07-30T06:55:46.153731 application/epub+zip 2302746 2025-07-30T06:55:50.731738 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 2295862 2025-07-30T06:55:48.448707 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 60373 2025-07-30T06:55:45.583724 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 40645 2025-05-24T00:13:29 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 14206 2025-07-30T06:55:50.892710 application/rdf+xml 31216 2025-07-30T06:55:46.396745 image/jpeg 4911 2025-07-30T06:55:46.283720 image/jpeg 886675 2025-07-30T06:55:45.770777 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog