Blog posts | Perlan Project

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Blog

Perlan’s blog collects the thoughts and experiences of team members from the multiple disciplines needed to build and prepare the aircraft, plan the flight, and carry out the mission. Here, you’ll find insights from the designers, craftspeople, pilots, meteorologists, and support personnel who will make Perlan’s record ascents a reality. Perlan’s blog will be an opportunity to delve into the challenges and triumphs that travel with the giant sailplane.

September Meeting

The Perlan Project has held its major team meeting for the year, in the Bend, Oregon workshop where the new glider is under construction. The team members got together to see the progress in the workshop and make some important decisions for the next steps.

The most important decision in this meeting was Dennis will ship his glider down to Argentina for the November-December flying season so that we can get some experience flying safely and legally in Argentina. Dennis owns a DG1001M glider, which is the perfect glider for this kind of flying.

Full Wingspan on Display

Yesterday at Windward Performance a TV crew came out to prepare a piece on the Perlan Project.

Workshop Team Expanding

The Perlan build process is now up to full speed with many molds, jigs and parts under construction together. The team in the workshop is now more than twenty people. This recent photo doesn’t even show them all!

Perlan Rebreather Discussion.mp4

Video Presentation on Rebreather System

This two-minute video explains a little bit about the rebreather system we are planning to use and why it is so useful to us. Watch the video on YouTube here.

Christalt Eve

It’s the 24th of February, the day before a big day in the Perlan Project. Some came by air, in an ASH25 glider, no less. Most of the team has met up in preparation for tomorrow.

Fabulous Progress

Ed Warnock, our Executive Director, has visited the workshop in Bend and has the following report. Photos by John Miller.

Fabulous Progress!

I was amazed at the progress since we were there last. It is visually quite impressive.

Wings

The main shop is completely filled with wing construction and a second shop is mostly full with Perlan parts and equipment. As the foam plugs are being assembled and aligned you can see clearly the massive size and area of the wings.

Closeout tooling

Rebreather Mark 4 Testing

The rebreather system has been rebuilt into its 4th configuration. This is going to be used for testing as it is very close to the final flight configuration. Now that we have access to a suitable frezer, we can do our “cold tests” to check that there are no problems with ice build-up.

The photos show Roger Tanner, our chief pilot, sitting in the test seat. Most of the real changes on the rebreather are out of sight below his left elbow.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone following the Perlan Project.

December has been a pretty slow month for us but work is continuing. The main development was a decision on the battery system. It turns out the main battery is going to be one really big batery. Even with the latest (and safest) lithium battery technology, it’s the heaviest component inside the plane other than the pilots. A small tank of fuel and a generator would weigh less but we don’t want to have to engineer a way of providing oxygen for such an engine.

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