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. Einar Enevoldson spoke some years ago about Perlan 1. Jim and Jackie Payne spoke about Perlan 2 to a...
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. Tribal Trucking took it 3500 kilometers...
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. Since it was an...
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...
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...
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. There was a lot of interest in what Perlan had accomplished and...
When many of the Perlan team departed El Calafate, the weather was not safe for the tow plane to fly. Cholo was able to fly out from El Calafate on Monday. He was happy to be back in Roca with Chela.They have been married almost 60 years. Tago and Cholo had...
At the end of a successful campaign there are many people to thank. First is all the team members who traveled to El Calafate taking from 3 weeks to 3 months out of their busy lives. Each one of us put the mission above our personal lives and it is deeply...
On September 15 the Perlan team finished loading the container. It takes some preparation to get everything in the proper place and tightly secured. The Perlan 2 goes into its special built Cobra trailer. In one photo perhaps you can see Loris' shoes as he checks the...
Perlan 2 has a unique system to communicate with the ground. We call our ground station Cap Comm shortened for Capsule Communication. The software program was written by Tom Payne with Morgan Sandercock. Tom wrote a very robust program that could accept our...
While we were waiting for the Egrett tow plane to arrive, it was finally time to orchestrate a dress rehearsal for a Perlan 2 wave flight from El Calafate. The max pressure test had been successful. The to-do list of preparation was almost all checked off. Systems had...
With both front and rear hatches new in 2018 for Perlan 2, we wanted to verify their strength. The pilots decided what the expected pressure differential at our highest altitude might be. Then we tested above that for a margin of safety. Our Life Support System...
In 2018 Airbus Perlan Mission II has a more ambitious plan for wave soaring in the stratosphere. New this year we have an onsite weatherman to use his knowledge and connections to assess local conditions. We have new hatches to reduce the chance of leaks in the...
In mid July 2018 Perlan Project had several meetings in Buenos Aires with supporters. Sandra Sandercock the Perlan - Argentina Liason arranged meetings last year with the aviation authorities EANA and ANAC. This year the meetings were with the Argentina Air Force,...
When you have a campaign in a remote area of Patagonia you take everything necessary with you. Knowing the actual (not forecast) winds at all altitudes is extremely helpful on the day of a wave flight. Elizabeth Tattersall led the weather balloon crew last year, so...
Assembling the unique high altitude pressurized Perlan 2 is a bit more complex than your typical glider. However the procedure is still familar to other glider folks around the world. We inspect everything very carefully since it has traveled for 8 weeks to get to El...