THIS REVOLUTIONARY GLIDER CAN FLY TO THE EDGE OF SPACE WITHOUT AN ENGINE

There are no mini bags of peanuts either.

Einar Enevoldson was soaring through the sky at 50,722 feet, a world record for a sailplane or glider, but something was seriously wrong. Enevoldson and his copilot, the celebrated aviator, adventurer, and millionaire Steve Fossett, were wearing NASA-designed pressure suits that were supposed to enable them to survive flying in an unpressurized aircraft at such heights. But the suits were expanding, hindering any movement and preventing the men from reaching the aircraft’s controls. They were also doing very little to keep the aviators warm as external temperatures dropped below -65°C.

The pair landed safely that day. But although Enevoldson had just set an altitude record, he knew that to achieve his dream of piloting a glider above 90,000 feet and surviving, significant improvements needed to be made.

Enter the Perlan Project. Founded by Enevoldson, the project consists of a team of experts in aviation, engineering, and meteorology, brought together to shatter the altitude record for flight in a glider. After more than two decades of study and development, the crew is currently testing the second iteration of its glider, the Perlan 2. If successful, the group will send the glider to 90,000 feet—beyond the reaches of famous high- altitude jets like the U-2 and SR-71—powered not by turbine engines but by the stratospheric mountain waves the team has helped discover.

This story begins in 1992. Enevoldson, a former test pilot for both the U.S. Air Force and NASA, was attending a scientific gathering at the DLR (German Aerospace Center) near Munich when he noticed something peculiar in one of the images being presented. It showed extremely large atmospheric waves of air forming above mountain ranges. These vertical air flows traveled at high speed and could be detected reaching about 15 miles into the sky.

Enevoldson was struck by the idea of riding one of these waves in a sailplane or glider. But making that happen has proved to be a monumental challenge.

Enevoldson studied the meteorological phenomenon for seven years. In 1998 he teamed with Elizabeth Austin, Ph.D., now chief meteorologist of the Perlan Project. Together they not only verified the existence of what are now known as “stratospheric mountain waves” but also established that these waves were caused by the stratospheric polar night jet—essentially a jet stream on steroids—and the polar vortex. They are found only at specific locations and can reach heights of up to 130,000 feet.