The aircraft will be used to study the northern polar vortex and its influence on global weather patterns.

Because the aircraft will operate at extreme altitudes, in only 3% of sea level atmospheric pressure, it will also be flying at true airspeeds in excess of 0.5 Mach.

The original funding for the Perlan Project was provided by Steve Fossett and he flew the Perlan 1, along with test pilot Einar Enevoldson to a glider altitude record of 50,761 ft (15 km) in the mountain waves of El Calafate, Argentina on 30 August 2006.

The record setting and research flights started in southern Argentina in 2016,[6] by Einar Envoldson[2] or Perrenod using rebreather oxygen systems.

[7][8][9] On 3 September 2017 Perlan 2, flown by Jim Payne and Morgan Sandercock, reached an altitude of 52,172 ft (15,902 m), establishing a new world record for gliders over the Andes Mountain range in Argentina.