When you claim a world altitude record, you must be able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you truly achieved your claimed altitude. Part of the rules require a pre- AND a post-flight calibration of your instruments. The Soaring Society of America contributed two LX-9000s to the Perlan Project to anchor the front and rear instrument panels. Stanford University's Space Rendezvous Lab has the ability to calibrate those High Altitude Flight Recorders (HAFRs). Dr Simone D'Amico has been very supportive of Perlan Project with three years of calibration. His team is receiving the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) Group Diploma of Honour at National Aeronautic Association (NAA) in Washington, DC later this month due to that generous support.
Surfing in the Sky
Glider pilots have surfed on mountain waves since 1932. The process is like surfing on a wave in the ocean, except the glider is in the wave rather than on the surface of the wave. Einar Enevoldson, a NASA Test Pilot, saw evidence that in regions closer to the Poles, in winter, the waves could extend above the troposphere and well into the stratosphere. Previously, no one had searched for waves in the stratosphere in sub-polar regions in winter. From 1992 until 1998 he gathered more evidence that these waves existed, and might be strong enough to lift a sailplane to remarkable altitudes. In 1998 Dr. Elizabeth Austin joined Einar in the search for an understanding of stratospheric mountain waves. She found that the Polar Vortex, and one of its principal components, the stratospheric polar night jet, existing only in winter, provided the high speed wind in the stratosphere that powered incredibly high waves. The Perlan Project was formed to explore these waves and soar them to the edge of space.
