High-Altitude Test Flight Helps Find Room for Improvement

The Perlan Project’s Perlan 2 spaceglider took flight on August 23rd, looking to take a jaunt over the Andes mountains of Peru to celebrate “National Ride the Wind Day”, lofting themselves into an attempt at a world record of 90,000 feet in a crewed glider. Those interested in the Perlan Project got to track the live telemetry of the project, watching as the Perlan 2 was towed up to its initial altitude before lifting up and away off the bountiful, fierce mountain waves over the Andes. After 2.5 hours of flight, the Perlan 2 was making a good vertical speed of 8 knots at a pressure altitude of 45,500 feet. By the end, the Perlan 2 was able to reach a max altitude just