The tail camera footage from Perlan 2 can be spectacular. I scoured the 5 hour flight from 9/9/17 for the most glorious shots. It was very difficult to narrow it to only 4 minutes! The music I selected was "Higher" by Silent Partner. How cool is that? Tim Davis put it...
On February 5, 2018 the National Aeronautic Association annouced the illustrious list of nominees for the greatest aviation achievement in America in 2017. Perlan Project was proud to be included in this prestigeous group. This is the Oscar of Aviation, there is no...
Today we have a guest blogger Alec Guay our intern for past 2 years. Alec (aka Grasshopper) has helped immeasurably in Argentina for two campaigns. Now he is helping with the improved CubeSat rack and other Payload Bay improvements in Rosamond under the watchful eye...
One of the more challenging aspects of every wave flight of Perlan 2 is the tow. On the September 9, 2017 wave day the air that the CNVVM tow plane and Perlan 2 flew through was dynamic. It could be compared to a moderate roller coaster ride. The video linked below...
The one-of-a-kind pressurized glider Perlan 2 is assembled similar to a normal large two-place glider. We pull out the fuselage and each wing from the special built Cobra trailer. We have created our own heavy-duty rigging aids like metal rolling saw horses modified...
On January 6, 2018 Perlan Project hosted title sponsor Airbus for the quarterly review meeting. Since the Perlan 2 glider was in Rosamond for upgrades requiring carbon fiber parts, we held the meeting at nearby Hilton Garden Inn in Palmdale, CA. After the meeting we...
On January 5, 2018 Aviation Week annouced their 2017 Aviation Person of the Year - Tom Enders, CEO of Airbus. Dr. Enders has been a long time supporter of the visionary Perlan Project. We are so pleased to congratulate him on this awesome accolade. Dr. Enders has...
In the off-season Airbus Perlan Mission II is making more upgrades to the Perlan 2 pressurized glider. Team member Greg Scates has been invaluable in creeating solutions for these upgrades. Previously he came to Minden to the cold hangar to make and cure carbon fiber...
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....
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....
On August 22 we awoke to an email announcement that the September 3, 2017 high altitude flight had been approved by the FAI as a Soaring World Record. This validated the US National Record awarded in March by the NAA for Absolute Altitude of 52,221 feet or 15,917...
On August 20, 2018 for Perlan 2's third high altitude stratoshperic practice tow, Jim and Tim were ready to give it a try. The ground team supported with all the pre-flight items on the check lists. The Egrett was ready to tow. There were calm surface winds so Alec...
When your goal is to reach the edge of space, visiting someone who is already soaring above the tropopause is a great way to vacation! SolarStratus visited Perlan Project in El Calafate to see how we do it. We actually had 2 launches in 3 days so they got a deep dose...
On August 17, 2018 Perlan 2 made it's second tow into the stratosphere. We awoke to pounding rain from 4:30-5 am followed by snow flurries. But after that frontal passage the skies cleared as Dan Gudgel had forecast. Linda took the photo of the day at sunrise. On this...
Once the Egrett arrived and was in-processed it was time for some test tows of Perlan 2 behind the powerful tow plane. The first test flight was set up for only 11,000 feet to determine the optimum parameters. Jim and Tim got ready to test lots of new Perlan upgrades...
On Saturday August 11 the Egrett finally arrived in El Calafate to provide powerful tows for Airbus Perlan Mission II. For months Mike Malis has worked on acquiring, refurbishing, and installing a tow hook on the Egrett and getting it signed off. Then at the end of...