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.

SSA Convention 2010

The Soaring Society of America has just wrapped up its convention in Litte Rock, Arkansas. The Perlan Project was represented there by the project director, Einar Enevoldson, and other Perlan team members.

This mockup cockpit has been made from the ‘production’ molds so it tested the production techniques as well as becoming a ‘plug’ for molds which will make internal parts such as the all-important pressure bulkhead. It is a fantastic visual aid to let everyone know what the finished glider will look like.

Presentation at Omarama, New Zealand

Morgan recently visited Omarama, New Zealand, to fly in the unique conditions and learn from some of the world’s top experts on wave flying. Omarama has a special connection to the Perlan Project as the team was based there for several seasons early in the project.

While he was there, Morgan was asked to make a presentation to the pilots to let them know where the Perlan is up to. The presentation was well-recieved, with many questions asked at the end.

Preparations for SSA Convention

The Soaring Society of America is holding its annual convention in Little Rock, Arkansas on January 28-30 this year. The Perlan Project will be there with a new mockup of the forward fuselage. If you want to see if you fit in the cockpit, then this is a good chance to try it for yourself.

Lenticulars over Nevada

Our project meteorologist Elizabeth Austin took this picture of lenticular clouds over her house in Nevada yesterday.

Lenticulars are important to glider pilots because they only occur when there is wave activity. Sometimes the wave might be too weak to support a glider or there is no lift underneath the wave that would enable us to climb up into it but these deeply-stacked lennies in the photo indicate lots of strong wave.

First Flying Surfaces Underway

The mold-building process has begun on the horizontal tailplane.

This is the first of the “flying” aerodynamic parts to be started. It is proceeding in exactly the same way as the fuselage. First we cut a foam block with the CNC machine, then sand and paint it to make a plug. The mold is laid up on the plug, using high-temperature carbon fibre and resin. The actual parts will be laid up in the mold with lightweight pre-preg carbon fibre cloth.

First Mold

The first high-temperature carbon fibre mold has been seperated from its plug. It has turned out perfectly with no defects.

Three big milestones completed

Today we completed three big milestones towards constructing the airplane.

One fuselage forward-half mold has been infused with epoxy resin
The hatch test box has passed its pressure+cold test
We pressurised a test double-paned window to destruction just to see what it takes to blow up one of these windows.

It will take me some time to download and edit the video of these events, so I will put more details in future blog postings. Here are a couple of pictures of today’s events.

Preparations for Second Pressure Test

The second test box has now been completed. This box is intended to test the hatch with pressure and cold.

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