On the morning of first flight of the Perlan 2 glider, we had just a few people on the line for launch. Einar Enevoldson, the visionary of The Perlan Project, shook the chief pilot, Jim Payne's, hand symbolizing the passing of the baton from the Perlan 1 to the...
On Sunday before first flight some practice tows with a masked DG had been done at Minden with Silvio and same SoaringNV Pawnee that would be used for actual First Flight. Jim was in front with Perlan-style masked canopy and Morgan was in back with clear canopy. Both...
We are currently displaying the glider at the Reno Air Races. We have a lot of supporters in ths region and we promised to show them the glider. We will be here until Sunday afternoon, if you are in the area and can come and see it. The questions we get here at Reno...
The Airbus Perlan 2 Glider First Flight Test is now scheduled for Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - weather permitting. Poor weather conditions on the originally scheduled date caused the delay. The wind was outside of the defined safety limits for conducting the First...
On the morning of September 9, 2015, everyone in Redmond was working to assemble all the components. Doug was arranging logistics. Morgan was working on final touches to software. Eric and RDD folks are working on interior of cockpits - wiring, instruments, panels,...
One of the most striking visual differences between a normal glider and the pressurized Perlan2 is the windows instead of a canopy. Dennis Tito's DG 1001 has a huge canopy with excellent viz, whereas the Perlan2 has 6 view ports and two transparent top hatches. So on...
The Perlan 2 wing has passed one of its most dangerous tests: the 3G load test. First RDD had to build a beefy test stand to hold the wings aloft, but upside down. Sandbags equal to three times the weight of the whole glider were loaded onto the bottom surface of the...
The Airbus Perlan2 Team is celebrating over Labor Day Weekend! On Friday we received our FAA Airworthiness Certificate for the Perlan2. This is a huge milestone and mega kudos to RDD for their tireless efforts to get everything right. This was a critical step leading...
At Redmond airport there was a comprehensive First Flight Coordination meeting. Several departments from the City of Redmond and several entities from the Redmond Airport sent representatives to sit down with RDD and the Perlan Team. Participating on-line were...
Miguel and his team (John, Tim and Dave) working on the Simulator cockpit mock-up and the Beta version of the control feedback for the Simulator flight controls.
One of our biggest challenges with Airbus Perlan Mission II in El Calafate is the limited bandwidth for Internet connections. The AeroClub Lago Argentino helpfully expanded the Internet capacity in the hangar. But 15 team members plus multiple computers for telemetry,...
On August 5, 2017 we said farewell to Dr Elizabeth Tattersall aka "the Balloon Doc" as she had to return to teach college classes. ET lead the balloon crew through initial training and early morning launches for a month. She will be missed. We celebrated one month in...
Even when it's not wave weather the Airbus Perlan Mission II team is always busy. On August 4 we visited with the Naval Prefactura on the shores of Lago Argentina. If the Perlan 2 uses the BRS whole glider parachute, it will drift with the wind. We are safety minded...
On August 3, 2017 The Perlan Team was treated to nacreous clouds highlighted by the rising sun ito the east (second photo). These are pearlesent in color and are the root of the word Perlan. They are at an extremely high altitude and we were delighted to see them....
July 31, 2017 was Tago's birthday, and all he wanted was a world record as a present. Was not to be. Jim knew that the weather would likely support weak wave and our early morning weather balloon launch indicated a weakening at 29,000 feet. But we needed the practice...
If I miss a day with a new blog so much seems to happen! But with 15 quality folks in El Calafate driven to make Airbus Perlan Mission II a success, that's not really a surprise! While the western US has record heat waves, we are waking up to snow and ice with -6 C...