That had been Jim’s previous highest point back in 1986. “As Jim climbed through 42,200 feet Einar sent a message of congratulations which we relayed to Jim on the radio. The Virtual Cockpit shows the moving map and several telemetry items like battery, oxygen, and air remaining. “The battery was working hard keeping critcal items like the oxygen regulator and 20 toes warm. As they slowly climbed they knew they had punched through the tropopause when it stopped getting colder and lift again increased. Then it was time to turn downwind to see if they could find the now stronger secondary wave. Each time there were no anomolies so Perlan 2 was cleared for another 5,000 feet. “They performed a flutter vibration test at 35,000 feet and 40,000 feet. They had to stay above 38,000 feet for 40 minutes due to jet traffic headed to Antartica. That altitude was used to go south towards the border where they were in contact with Chilean air traffic control. “Jim and Morgan slowly climbed to 33,000 feet. We kept looking at the sky wondering where were the wave clouds? “CapComm with Ed, Tim, Al, Lars and Loris scoured the weather forecasts to find a stairstep path that would enable them to climb higher. That cost 7,000 feet of altitude, but it was an investment towards the forecast stronger lift.” “At 28,000 feet they had enough altitude to penetrate upwind through sink to the stronger lift of the primary wave off the Andes. All systems were in the green on the life support systems display so they kept on flying. Perlan 2 climbed slowly through 18,000 feet and connected with mid-level wave. “Cholo towed them to a hotspot near Cero Buenos Aires. We prefer brisk winds from the west were we really launching a wave mission? The surface winds were barely from the east. “Jim and Morgan launched behind Cholo in the the towplane at just after 9am.
Stewart, Lars, Tim, Daniel, Loris, Linda, Tago and Jackie got Jim and Morgan belted in, and test pressurization on the ramp. Michael was standing by for any needed help with radio translations. “The sun was barely up and the sky did not show much sign of promise of wave.
“We pushed the Perlan 2 out of hangar into -4º C air with our Clouddancer covers on due to the cold,” said the team’s blog. And a team effort it was, with persistent, imaginative flying from the two pilots on board and key information being fed to them by the ground crew.įromt the way the team tells it, it seemed an unlikely outcome when they launched with a mediocre forecast for gliding conditions… but they persevered. The glider also has a wave visualization system that graphically displays areas of rising air.54,000 feet in a glider! A new record! That’s what the Airbus-supported Perlan glider team of volunteers currently based in Argentina achieved at the weekend. The carbon fiber structure is pressurized and has a closed-loop rebreather system, using oxygen only to support the pilots during flight. The Perlan 2 was built in Minden, Nevada, where the team flies in the winter months. On August 26, the glider flew to 62,000 feet, then 65,000 feet and finally the astonishing 76,000 feet, where the darkness of space and the curvature of the earth can clearly be seen around the glider. This is the third record breaking flight for the Perlan 2 in the past week and the flight came less than a week after the team first flew beyond 60,000 feet. The Perlan 2 glider was pulled off the ground at the airport in El Calafate, Argentina, with Airbus Perlan Mission II chief pilot Jim Payne and pilot Tim Gardner on board.
This weekend, on September 3, The Perlan 2 glider achieved by far the highest flight, soaring all the way to 76,124 feet, more than 10,000 feet higher than it had previously reached and higher than the top altitude recorded by the U2 spy plane. Since then, Enevoldson’s mission has continued, reaching higher and higher altitudes. On August 30, 2006, Enevoldson together with record-setter Steve Fossett, flew the Perlan I beyond 50,000 feet, breaking the altitude record for gliders at that time. With the Perlan Mission, Enevoldson set out with a very ambitious goal: to soar into the stratosphere – the atmospheric layer between the troposphere and the mesosphere. In the early 1990s, NASA test pilot Einar Enevoldson set out to prove that gliders could catch mountain waves and soar to extreme altitudes.
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