Perlan’s blog collects the thoughts and experiences of team members from the multiple disciplines needed to build and prepare the aircraft, plan the flight, and carry out the mission. Here, you’ll find insights from the designers, craftspeople, pilots, meteorologists, and support personnel who will make Perlan’s record ascents a reality. Perlan’s blog will be an opportunity to delve into the challenges and triumphs that travel with the giant sailplane.
Alec Guay, the two-year Perlan intern, made cubesats in Perlan 2 his collegiate senior engineering project. He flew to California for some hands on design and fabrication. The impetus to this project was threefold. We wanted a better rack to hold the cubesats. We need more battery power in the Perlan 2 for longer flights and we wanted to move the center of gravity more aft.
On November 30, 2017 Perlan Project gave a talk co-sponsored by China Lake chapter of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the China Lake Museum. The afternoon started with a personally guided tour of the China Lake Museum by Bob Campbell. Bertha Ryan and BJ Holden are long time friends of Perlan and instrumental in setting up this event. Bertha authored the biography of Einar Enevoldson published a few years ago.
On November 29, 2017 NASA Armstrong (previously Dryden) hosted it's 50th Colloquium Series about innovative aviation. Perlan Project was honored to be selected again.
On September 15 the Perlan container departed El Calafate, Argentina and on November 6 it arrived two months and over 12,000 kilometers later in Minden, Nevada. It was a excellent trip in the hands of some great companies.
On November 4, 2017 the Pacific Soaring Council (PASCO) hosted it's 50th anniversary seminar and dinner. This was at the Sequoia Yacht Club just south of San Francisco. Perlan Project was represented by Jim and Jackie Payne as the banquet speakers.
On October 7-8, 2017 the Minden Tahoe Airport hosted an Aviation Roundup (Extravaganza) with the Air Force Thunderbirds as the headline event. In two days 31,000 aviation minded folks came through the gates! Perlan Project had our simulator available for those who wanted to see how it would feel to be at the controls of Perlan 2 thanks to Tim Gardner. And we had our mockup available for youngsters to build a dream of soaring. Thanks to Bobbi Thompson, airport manager, and Laurie Harden-Ricardi, SoaringNV, for letting Perlan in and finding a place for our equipment. (The actual Perlan 2 was still on a boat sailing north.)
A world record is more than accomplishing the desired feat. A world record claim must document the data and prove that the pertinent rules were followed. A major component of verification is the flight data recorders. Thanks to Professsor Simone D'Amico and the Space Rendezvous Lab at Stanford University, Perlan Project was able to document that flight data and follow the never before used rules. Thanks also to Bernald Smith and Todd Walters for setting up the initial calaibration in 2016 and to Duncan Eddy and Vince Giralo for running the scripts. Tom Payne (PhD Stanford) helped the lab set up the two LX's for the calibrations.
Airbus Perlan Mission II was well represented In Buenos Aires from September 18-22 by Morgan and Sandra Sandercock. They made a presentation to the Argentina Air Force Research and Development division.