William Rankin

Lieutenant Colonel William Henry Rankin (October 16, 1920 – July 6, 2009) was one of only two known persons to survive a fall from the top of a cumulonimbus thunderstorm cloud; the other was Ewa Wiśnierska. He was a pilot in the United States Marine Corps and a World War II and Korean War veteran. He was flying an F-8 Crusader jet fighter over a cumulonimbus cloud when the engine failed, forcing him to eject and parachute into the cloud. Lieutenant Colonel Rankin wrote a book about his experience, The Man Who Rode the Thunder.