Perlan Project
Perlan Project Inc. is a not-for-profit aeronautical exploration and atmospheric science research organization that utilizes sailplanes (gliders) designed to fly at extremely high altitudes.
[2][3][4] These flights used the custom designed and built pressurized high-altitude Windward Performance Perlan II glider, sponsored by Airbus.
A strong west wind usually decreases above the tropopause, which has been shown to cap or prevent the upward propagation of standing mountain waves.
Einar Enevoldson, former NASA test pilot, sought to demonstrate the feasibility of riding these stratospheric standing mountain waves.
The following list of requirements for record attempts was given in an article published in 2014:[7] These conditions often occur during late winter and early spring over the southern Andes and Scandinavia.
A sailplane is an ideal platform for several scientific and technological research endeavors: Einar Enevoldson conceived the project in 1992, after seeing the new LIDAR images of standing mountain waves west of Kiruna, Sweden, that Wolfgang Renger of the DLR, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany had posted on his office wall.
A Glaser-Dirks DG-500 (DG 505M) motorized glider was modified to remove all engine and related equipment and the space used for storage of liquid oxygen and a large supply of Li-SO2 primary batteries.
Duncan Cummings, of San Pedro, California, built special, lightweight, efficient, reliable faceplate heat controllers.
In 2006, the forecast offered very favorable conditions on 28 August but at 33,000 feet, in a strong climb, Steve Fossett's pressure suit inflated prematurely and excessively, and the flight was aborted.
Because the record flight of 29 August 2006 proved Enevoldson's thesis, Steve Fossett agreed to fund, progressively, the next mission: to build a special purpose sailplane with a pressurized cabin to fly to 90,000 feet.
Einar Enevoldson reported in September 2008, that Morgan Sandercock, an experienced sailplane pilot from Australia, had provided funds to restart the project.
In June 2010, Dennis Tito joined the mission as a pilot and major funder, which enabled significant progress towards the completion of the aircraft.
The sailplane required relatively high-end design, analysis, and construction to be flutter-safe at very high true air speeds, and strong enough for the potentially heavy turbulence that could be encountered at 90,000 feet.
[9] The first attempts to reach 90,000 feet will be launched from El Calafate, Argentina, deep in the south of Patagonia, in the Southern Hemisphere soon afterwards in summer of 2016.
Jim Payne (USA) and Morgan Sandercock (Australia) set a new altitude record of 15,902 metres (52,172 feet) from Comandante Armando Tola International Airport in El Calafate, Argentina.
