Lieutenant Colonel William Henry Rankin was the first person to survive a fall from the top of a cumulonimbus thunderstorm cloud. He was a pilot in the United States Marine Corps and a World War II and Korean War veteran. In 1959, he was flying an F-8 Crusader jet fighter over a cumulonimbus cloud when the engine failed, and he ejected and parachuted into the cloud. Rankin wrote a book about his experience, The Man Who Rode the Thunder.
- Occupation
- military officer, writer, aircraft pilot, career officer
- Citizenship
- United States
- Born
- October 16, 1920
- Died
- July 6, 2009
