![]() During the record-setting flight, Perlan 2 was towed to the base of the stratosphere - 42,000ft - by a Grob Egrett G520 turboprop, a high-altitude reconnaissance plane that was modified for the task earlier this summer. The 2017 record broke a previous record that was set in 2006, in the unpressurized Perlan 1, by Perlan Project founder Einar Enevoldson and Steve Fossett.Īnother first-of-its kind achievement this year for the Perlan Project was the use of a special high-altitude tow plane rather than a conventional glider tow plane. This marks a second glider altitude world record for Jim Payne and Morgan Sandercock, the same two Perlan Project pilots who soared the Perlan 2 to 52,221 feet GPS altitude on 3rd September 2017, in the same remote region of Argentine Patagonia. The pressurized Perlan 2 glider, which is designed to soar up to 90,000 feet, passed the Armstrong Line, the point in the atmosphere above which an unprotected human’s blood will boil if an aircraft loses pressurization. This set a new gliding altitude world record, pending official validation. ![]() After setting several successive records in previous years, the team took a break during the COVID-19 pandemic.Airbus Perlan Mission II, the world’s first initiative to pilot an engine-less aircraft to the edge of space, made history again yesterday in El Calafate, Argentina, by soaring in the stratosphere to a pressure altitude of over 62,000 feet (60,669 feet GPS altitude). ![]() likely to occur in the southern hemisphere. The Airbus Perlan Mission II team, comprised of some of the aviation industry's most celebrated test pilots and world-renowned climate scientists, will conduct its 2023 flight campaign from late July through mid-September, when stratospheric mountain waves are at their lowest. The aircraft is able to fly without an engine to its record altitudes thanks to very rare air currents known as “stratospheric mountain waves”, which form when mountain winds are strengthened by the Polar Vortex. The glider, described by Warnock as “a space capsule with wings”, is equipped with sophisticated life support systems and instrumentation to ensure safety. ![]() The aircraft will also carry on board experiments designed by students of the school through the Perlan Project partnership and the STEAM methodology – the acronym, in Portuguese, corresponds to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics – with Teachers in Space.Īirbus began its sponsorship of the Perlan Project in 2014, facilitating the completion of construction on the Perlan 2. The aircraft will flyįor altitudes where the air is no denser than the atmosphere on Mars, providing unique opportunities for aerodynamic studies related to turbulence, extreme weather, and future space exploration. Jeffrey Knittel, President and CEO of Airbus Americas.Īs a research platform that does not emit exhaust, Perlan 2 is ideal for the high-altitude atmospheric research the team will conduct to inform more accurate models of climate change. “If a glider, which is a completely zero-emission aircraft, can become the highest-flying aircraft of all time, it sends a powerful message that the decarbonization of aviation is no impediment to flying, and it can to being an enabler,” said C. Above the Patagonian Andes, where weather conditions are ideal, the non-profit organization's expert pilots and engineers Perlan Project will attempt to fly the experimental glider to its 90.000-foot ceiling. The Perlan 2 pressurized glider, which set the world subsonic altitude record at over 76.000 feet in 2018, departed the US for a long journey to El Calafate, Argentina. “Over the past decade, we have been on an exciting adventure to inspire, educate and explore the stratosphere, and Airbus has been a great partner on this journey, as together we have attempted – and achieved – the seemingly impossible,” said Ed Warnock, CEO of The Perlan Project. of aviation altitude in manned and level flights. The Airbus Perlan Mission II, the world's first initiative to fly an unpowered aircraft to the edge of space, has successfully completed a flight test campaign in the US, paving the way for an attempt later this year to set a new world record.
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