Some members of the Perlan team will be visiting Argentina again this year. The team will be the same as last year. We expect to be flying from Bariloche and Chos Malal during November and December. Left to Right in the photo: Jackie Payne, Dennis Tito, Morgan...
On October 8th, the Online Competition (OLC) season finished for 2011-12 with Jim Payne declared the winner for the year. This is a worldwide competition with more than a hundred thousand flights by thousands of glider pilots. At the top level, it gets very...
The Windward Performance workshop has completed fabrication on all of the major carbon components of the Perlan 2 glider. All these parts are now sitting in the assembly jigs or stored on shelves, awaiting assembly. This is a good opportunity to have a look around the...
The main spars have completed their three cycles in the oven and are now ready for further processing:
The main wing spars are being built in the workshop right now. This is a long process because of the hundreds of layers of carbon required. The “uni” or unidirectional carbon fibres are prepared in stacks of 5 layers before being interleaved with conventional carbon...
Einar Enevoldson and Dr. Elizabeth Austin after their keynote presentation, Perlan Projekt, Mit Dem Segelflugzeug in die Stratosphäre , at the Deutcher Aero Club’s Segelfigertag in 2002, Berlin, Germany. After Einar & Elizabeth’s presentation, Dr. Joach Kuettner...
Now that the fuselage pressure test has been run successfully, the focus moves to constructing the actual wings. We won’t be doing a destructive test on the wings, so the ones we are building now are the ones that are going to fly to 90,000 feet. (Or at least, they...
The Perlan fuselage test article is currently sitting outdoors, awaiting its next torture test. While it waits, it is watching the lenticular clouds forming overhead…
The destructive pressure test has been completed and we hit our engineering numbers almost perfectly. This test was testing for the worst possible conditions expected in flight. 2000 pounds of lead were loaded onto the seats to simulate the weight of the pilots...
The first pressure testing has begun on the fuselage test article. This test was just checking that the hatch seals work and there are no leaks. Now that we have done this test, the whole test rig will be moved into the safety cell. In the next few tests, big chunks...
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...
