Perlan Project
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The Perlan Project is a current research project to fly a sailplane to an altitude of 100,000 feet (30,480 meters). It was conceived by former NASA test pilot Einar Enevoldson. Piloted by record-seeking sportsman Steve Fossett and Enevoldson, a modified DG Flugzeugbau 505M sailplane will launch during very specific weather conditions. (This DG 505 is now classified as Experimental, as the motor was removed to make room for batteries and liquid oxygen.) With the below set of specific weather criteria, it is believed that the plane can be easily launched above the tropopause, a layer of still atmosphere directly above the ground-level troposphere. Because the tropopause has no atmospheric currents or thermals, sailplanes cannot fly through it. The sailplane will continue into the stratosphere, a layer of the atmosphere dominated by large, smooth air currents. There, they will seek a stratospheric mountain wave (SMW) that will carry them to a much higher altitude.
Based for a few years in Omarama, New Zealand, the project is currently based in Patagonia, at El Calafate, Argentina.
The conditions necessary for a successful flight are quite exceptional:
- The polar vortex overhead (occurring only in near-polar latitudes during winter)
- Prefrontal conditions
- A weak tropopause
- A gradual increase in windspeed with altitude
- Wind direction within 30° of perpendicular to the mountain ridgeline
- Cooperation of any present subtropical jet stream
- Strong low-altitude winds in a stable atmosphere
- Ridgetop winds of at least 20 knots
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