PERLAN
SETTING RECORDS FOR SCIENCE By Dean Sigler, Project Historian
The quest for records often helps advance science, and science often returns the favour. Perlan 2 makes advances in aeronautics and structures, to enable it to achieve record altitudes and monitor the high stratosphere in unique way – a significant distinction from record seeking in balloons and powered aircraft. SoaringNZ brings readers an exclusive look at the history of the project and the current state of play. Records and Data Seeking Early balloonists, at untested heights, often found the upper air scarier than anticipated. In 1804, Joseph Louis Gay - Lussac, physicist, chemist, and balloonist, recorded several flights of over 20,000 feet, where he noted occasional states of unconsciousness and dizziness. Dr. James Glaisher and Henry Coxwell, perhaps ignorant of Gay-Lussac’s reports, sought data on temperature and humidity at increasing altitudes in their September 1862 ascension over Wolverhampton, England, but found temperatures below -30° F, and had trouble breathing as the balloon climbed. Barely escaping with their lives, the pair had collected data on the levels at which clouds form, and the origins of rain. Gaston Tissandier and his companions Croce-Spinelli and Sivel ascended to over 29,000 feet, and only Gaston survived the ordeal. As aircraft matured, American, British, French, and Italian aviators began assaulting the heavens. June 30, 1938 marked Flight-Lieutenant M. J. Adams’ 53,937 foot record, flying a purposebuilt Bristol 138, only to have that achievement eclipsed by
Lieutenant-Colonel Mario Pezzi’s record 56,032 feet in a Caproni Ca.161 biplane on September 22. Adams and Pezzi wore pressure suits resembling antique diving outfi ts, in which neither could escape the intense cold. Sailplanes have reached the near stratosphere in recent years. Earlier pilots were constrained by what could be achieved with thermals and ridge lift, but the discovery of standing mountain waves changed those limitations. Paul Bikle, Director at NASA’s Dryden Flight Test Center from 1959 to 1971, was a soaring enthusiast and president of the Soaring Society of America. In February, 1961, he reached 46,267 feet over China Lake, California, in his simple, unheated Schweitzer 1-23. Bikle had his son run his car’s heater at full blast in preparation for Bikle’s landing after two hours at -40° F temperatures. According to NASA Dryden’s web site, “Bikle’s absolute altitude record for sailplanes was broken on Feb. 17, 1986 by Robert Harris, who reached 49,009 ft. altitude fl ying a Grob 102 over California City, Calif. The current record of 50,722 ft was set by the late Steve Fossett and Einar Enevoldson, as part of the Perlan project on August 30, 2006. Bikle’s 1961 record for altitude gained – 42,303 ft. – is still unchallenged.” With good reason. A former U. S. Air Force and NASA test pilot, Einar explains, “39,000 feet is the maximum limit for 100-percent oxygen, without leaks, and a perfect mask. One can then ‘pressure breathe,’ where the lungs are inflated above ambient pressure, which keeps pressure in the lungs at 39,000 feet. You must force the air out to exhale – it gets to be a lot of work eventually.” Einar experienced poorly operating pressurisation systems that caused extreme discomfort at altitude. An early ‘jerkin’ type pressure shirt was worn, with inflatable
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