From May 2-5 Teachers in Space visited Perlan in Minden, sponsored by Perlan Project. Chris Murphy was team lead for 3 Ashford School science and robotics teachers. Kathryn Craven, Dorey Manfre, and Carly Imhoff have just completed training for Perlan 2 high altitude...
After designing, implementing and installing various upgrades for season two in the Sierra, Airbus Perlan 2 flew its first wave mission April 22, 2017. All systems worked flawlessly. Although wave lift was weak above 25,000 feet they managed 30,960 ft on GPS altimeter...
On April 11, 2017 the Perlan 2 glider took to the air for a Functional Check Flight. Finally it was ready for a Return to Flight low altitude, unpressurized mission. Jim Payne and Tim Gardner launched behind Silvio Ricardi in the SoaringNV Pawnee tow plane. Jim and...
Morgan Sandercock, pilot, project manager and contributor to the Perlan Project gave a presentation to the biennial OSTIV Congress in Benalla, Australia. OSTIV is the technical and academic society for the scientific advancement of soaring. (It's actually a French...
El Calafate is on the middle of the south shore of Lago Argentino. It is the largest lake in Patagonia and is fed by Perito Moreno Glacier - the White Giant on the west shore of the lake only 80 km away. The Parque Nacional Los Glaciares contains many glaciers but...
October 7, 2016. The 2016 Argentina wave season has ended for the Airbus Perlan Mission II team. We learned and accomplished a lot, but strong wave conditions never materialized. The Perlan team put together an amazing network of supporters in Argentina. It started...
It was a brief high altitude Argentine wave season with no good weather during expected prime time of August and September. But Airbus Perlan Mission II made the most of what weak wave was available. We learned an incredible amount about the support available in...
On September 21, 2016, Airbus Perlan Mission II hosted a media day in El Calafate, Argentina. We also hosted a "Battle of the Forecasts" for weather. But Jim Payne and Tim Gardner decided to take a tow to see what lift they could find. And it proved the right choice!...
We had a chance for weak wave on Septermber 18. Team Perlan wanted to test some of Morgan's extensive software updates for flutter testing, Life Support Systems Display (LSSD), and telemetry. We also wanted a larger beta testing of the Virtual Cockpit software by...
Every non-wave season we try to get some upgrades done on the Perlan 2. From December 2017-February 2018 Greg Scates has led a volunteer crew in Rosamond and achieved some spectacular changes. Mike Malis, Alec Guay, Scott Wiley and David Leingang have all spent many...
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...