Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 21, 2011 20:08:35 GMT 12
I was listening to a podcast from earlier in the week from Warbird Radio and Matt Jolley and his guest Bobbie were talking about an attempt that is going to be made later in the year by a team from the USA to attempt the highest altitude flight.
The team used to be lead by the late Steve Fossett whose earlier attempts saw him take a glider to around 50,000 feet, wearing a pressure suit supplied by NASA. But the suit was not good for the pilot comfort-wise and so they are taking another tact, and buidling a fully pressurised glider. They plan to take it to South America to catch a special wave that comes off the Antarctic, and the plan is to attempt to take the glider up to 100,000ft.
This is an amazing prospect. Powered aircraft cannot fly that high, as far as I know, so this is to be record breaking in every aspect if they pull it off. Certainly a project to watch I think.
The team used to be lead by the late Steve Fossett whose earlier attempts saw him take a glider to around 50,000 feet, wearing a pressure suit supplied by NASA. But the suit was not good for the pilot comfort-wise and so they are taking another tact, and buidling a fully pressurised glider. They plan to take it to South America to catch a special wave that comes off the Antarctic, and the plan is to attempt to take the glider up to 100,000ft.
This is an amazing prospect. Powered aircraft cannot fly that high, as far as I know, so this is to be record breaking in every aspect if they pull it off. Certainly a project to watch I think.
