![]() McArtor says the tech that allowed for Perlan 2 was in part sparked by miniaturization the ability to provide advanced avionics in very small packages. The glider reaches a position of several thousand feet altitude using a tow plane and cable, just like any other glider, then is cut loose to position itself to ride the Andes mountain waves. The current Perlan 2’s wings are designed to handle six Gs of gravity with daylight flight times of up to nine hours. “We’re going to prove that these mountain waves are exactly what enable the aircraft to soar to 90,000 feet.” “All the climate models assume there’s no mixing between the stratosphere and below but there really is,” said McArtor. ![]() The waves themselves are kicked up by winds that blow over high mountain regions such as the andes and propagate upward as high as 130,000 feet at speeds of more than 260 knots. ‘Perlan,’ Icelandic for ‘pearl,’ refers to a type of lenticular cloud that only form at high altitude inside these stratospheric mountain waves. The Perlan Project owes its current fortunes to the ground-breaking work of Perlan’s founder, NASA test pilot Einar Enevoldson, who during back in the 1990s first collected evidence that stratospheric mountain waves actually exist. “It’s in that region of suborbital space that Perlan 2 will be flying.” “Airbus recently filed a patent for hypersonic passenger craft that will go to suborbital space and back down again,” said McArtor. Its glider wings can fly in less than three per cent of normal air density at temperatures of minus 70☌, approximating the atmospheric conditions on Mars.Airbus says that any insight gained into flight at increasingly higher altitudes also has implications for the future of both sub-sonic and supersonic or hypersonic aviation, where given the right technology, higher operating altitudes could provide a range of potential advantages. When Perlan 2 reaches its target altitude of over 90,000ft it will be the highest a winged aircraft has ever flown in level flight. “So, this is a great opportunity for us to validate the design and performance of our solution in such extremely non-benign conditions.” “Our equipment will be in an unpressurised environment,” Duval Destin added. Marc Duval Destin, VP strategy, product policy and innovation for Thales’ Flight Avionics activities said that the Airbus Perlan Mission II aligns with Thales’ strategies for future, greener aviation and the environment. “Through this exciting partnership with Thales, we also look forward to inspiring new generations of scientists, engineers and pilots in environmentally conscious aviation.” “By exploring the stratosphere in an airborne research vehicle that creates zero pollution, we hope to unlock discoveries never possible before,” said Ed Warnock, CEO of The Perlan Project. Thales said the system’s resilience, high dependability and low size, weight and power make it adaptable to any aircraft. New altitude world record set by Airbus Perlan gliderįlytLink offers coverage and connectivity anywhere in the world for critical operations. The live feed will enable access to real-time data downloads. ![]() The world will get a ‘live, front row view’ of the stratosphere through the collaboration, Thales said, as the Perlan 2 glider is fitted with the FlytLink Thales Iridium Certus based satellite communications (satcom) system. Applications of its research include informing more accurate climate change models, innovating zero-emission aviation and demonstrating feasibility of using energy-efficient winged aircraft on Mars. The organisation’s mission is to conduct climate, atmospheric and aeronautical research at extreme high altitudes. Launched in 2015, the Perlan 2 achieved its highest record-setting flight of above 76,000 in 2018. ![]() The group has already set aviation world altitude records in the Perlan 2 glider, which was designed, built and deployed to fly to 90,000ft. Through the partnership, Thales will aim to fly its latest mobile satellite communications system, FlytLink, in a zero-emission glider to more than twice the altitude of a commercial airline flight.īased in Nevada, the Airbus Perlan Mission II team is planning for a possible return to flight this year in the US and El Calafate, Argentina.
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