A glider sets new altitude record
The Perlan-2 glider yesterday set a new altitude record, reaching an altitude of more than fourteen miles.
Then on September 2, Perlan pilots Jim Payne and Tim Gardner strapped themselves in and rode the glider to an altitude of 76,000 ft (23,000 m), setting a new flight record. This is higher than Lockheed Martin’s jet-powered U2 spy plane flown by the CIA, which reached 73,700 ft (22,475 m), and places it amongst a handful of manned aircraft to sustain flight at such as altitude.
Implied but unstated in the article at the link is the military value of this technology, once combined with drone technology.
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The Perlan-2 glider yesterday set a new altitude record, reaching an altitude of more than fourteen miles.
Then on September 2, Perlan pilots Jim Payne and Tim Gardner strapped themselves in and rode the glider to an altitude of 76,000 ft (23,000 m), setting a new flight record. This is higher than Lockheed Martin’s jet-powered U2 spy plane flown by the CIA, which reached 73,700 ft (22,475 m), and places it amongst a handful of manned aircraft to sustain flight at such as altitude.
Implied but unstated in the article at the link is the military value of this technology, once combined with drone technology.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
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4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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Cortaro, AZ 85652
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Military tech? This only shows that on the right few days of the year in a unique location a properly designed subsonic aircraft can fly this high. There is no new tech in this. The meteorology is very special.
They also needed to tow to 40,000 feet or so using a special turboprop towplane, the Grob Egret. A friend of mine was the maintenance engineer on that thing when it was in Australia for 7 years.
The original plan was to work lower mountain wave systems from a much lower tow and then try to transition to the upper wave system. They seem to have given up on that. Note there are no pressure suits and a pressurization failure will likely kill the pilots.
The drone probably monitored and corroborated their “achievement”… but from about a thousand feet higher just to be sure…