cloud mother of pearl cloud type non operating private foundation irs 501 c 3 founded 1992 founder einar enevoldson number of locations beaverton oregon usa area served global key people einar enevoldson founder & chairman elizabeth austin chief meteorologist ed warnock ceo jim payne chief pilot morgan sandercock donor and project manager dennis tito major donor st phane fymat head of build and fundraising website www.perlanproject.org perlan project inc. is a 501 c 3 not for profit aeronautical exploration and atmospheric science research organization that utilizes sailplanes gliders designed to fly at extremely high altitudes . on august 30 2006 steve fossett and einar enevoldson the pilots of perlan mission i broke the existing altitude record for gliders by soaring up to 50 671 feet 15 460m in a standard glider using stratospheric waves of air . perlan project is currently working on airbus perlan mission ii where airbus group is the title sponsor . sometime in 2016 17 the airbus perlan mission ii intends to work on setting a new altitude records by flying the custom designed and built pressurized high altitude windward performance perlan ii glider higher than any other manned wing borne aircraft has ever flown in sustained flight using stratospheric mountain waves and the polar vortex and in so doing harvest invaluable data about earth s atmosphere and its ozone layer . contents 1 meteorological basis of the missions 2 objectives 3 progress 4 history 5 airbus perlan mission ii 6 external links 7 references meteorological basis of the missions edit standing mountain waves are a source of rising air used in the sport of soaring . riding these waves similar in some ways to surfing on an ocean wave has been widely used to reach great altitudes in sailplanes since they were discovered by german glider pilots including wolf hirth in 1933 in the riesengebirge . 1 this method uses the powerfully rising and sinking air in mountain waves . gliders regularly climb in these waves to high altitudes . currently the glider absolute world altitude record stands at 15 460 meters 50 727 feet which is the altitude reached by steve fossett and einar enevoldson during perlan mission i. the previous record was 14 938 meters 49 009 feet . it was set in 1986 by robert r. harris flying from california city and reaching his record height over mount whitney california . 2 this is thought to be near the limit for standing mountain waves in temperate latitudes although in unusual meteorological conditions much higher altitudes may be achievable . standing waves normally do not extend above the tropopause at temperate latitudes . a strong west wind usually decreases above the tropopause which has been shown to cap or prevent the upward propagation of standing mountain waves . however at the outer boundary of the polar vortex in winter the stratospheric polar night jet exists . its wind field can join with the wind field of the polar jet stream . the result is a wind which increases with altitude through the tropopause and upward to 100 000 feet or above . when this conjunction of winds occurs over a barrier mountain standing mountain waves will propagate through that entire altitude range . einar enevoldson former nasa test pilot sought to demonstrate the feasibility of riding these stratospheric standing mountain waves . the weather conditions favorable although not in every case required to exist simultaneously for a climb into the stratospheric waves are not exceptional citation needed the stratospheric polar night jet overhead occurring in near polar latitudes during the late winter and early spring citation needed pre frontal conditions citation needed a gradual increase in wind speed with altitude citation needed wind direction within 30 of perpendicular to the mountain ridgeline citation needed strong low altitude winds in a stable atmosphere citation needed ridge top winds of at least 20 knots . citation needed these conditions are likely to occur in the southern region of patagonia three to four times per year between mid august and mid october . they probably occur in new zealand but less frequently ; over the antarctic peninsula more frequently ; and at several locations in the northern hemisphere but closer to the north pole at latitudes above 60 north . citation needed objectives edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . july 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message the overall objective of the project is to show that sailplane flight well into the middle stratosphere in the vicinity of 90 000 feet can be done safely repeatedly and economically . a sailplane is an ideal platform for several scientific and technological research endeavors a sailplane can maneuver precisely at very high altitudes to traverse or remain relatively stationary in a desired portion of the wave structure as the structure is determined in flight . a sailplane can remain on station for several hours to record the evolution of the wave . a sailplane with modern compact low power instrumentation makes possible the recording of air mass motion precisely as well as the collection of samples for later ground analysis or analysis in flight . a sailplane has high strength and great controllability . it is ideal for penetrating breaking waves to determine the turbulence structure and ensuing flight dynamics . a sailplane at 90 000 feet altitude flies in approximately the same aerodynamic regime mach and reynolds numbers to be experienced by a moderate size aircraft flying near the surface of mars . a sailplane may carry aerodynamic instrumentation to measure the boundary layer behavior in this regime better than can be done in any wind tunnel . progress edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . july 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message perlan mission i was designed to prove enevoldson s thesis by actually flying into and climbing these stratospheric mountain waves . after several years of attempts a record flight of 29 august 2006 which extended 17 000 feet into the stratosphere accomplished this goal . although the sailplane was continuing to climb the flight was terminated due to several small but cumulatively significant practical difficulties encountered by the pilots in operating the sailplane in inflated pressure suits . modeling of the wave showed good agreement with the flight measured atmospheric motions and showed the wave increasing strongly at progressively higher altitudes . because the record flight of 29 august 2006 proved enevoldson s thesis steve fossett agreed to fund progressively the next mission to build a special purpose sailplane with a pressurized cabin to fly to 90 000 feet . at the time of steve s death on 3 september 2007 the structural and aerodynamic design of the fuselage had been completed along with the aerodynamic design of the entire sailplane . funding for the remainder of the perlan project was lost with steve s death and a search for new funding was begun . einar enevoldson reported in september 2008 that morgan sandercock an experienced sailplane pilot from australia had provided funds to restart the project . this funding was put to completing the fuselage with pressure cabin and do the structural tests on it but additional funds were needed to complete the aircraft . in june 2010 dennis tito joined the mission as a pilot and major funder which enabled significant progress towards the completion of the aircraft . that same year jim payne holder of numerous world soaring records joined the project as chief pilot . history edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . july 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message einar enevoldson conceived the project in 1992 after seeing the new lidar images of standing mountain waves west of kiruna sweden that wolfgang renger of the dlr oberpfaffenhofen germany had posted on his office wall . enevoldson collected evidence on the location prevalence and strength of stratospheric mountain waves during the period 1992 1998 . starting in 1998 elizabeth austin expanded the data analysis and put the project on a firm meteorological basis with the observation that the stratospheric polar night jet was the principal factor enabling the propagation of standing mountain waves high into the middle stratosphere . at this time a small group at the nasa dryden flight research center analysed the flight dynamics and aerodynamics of sailplane flight up to 100 000 feet . in 1999 steve fossett heard that enevoldson was trying to find funding and immediately asked to join the project . united states air force on the basis of nasa request loaned the project full pressure suits . a glaser dirks dg 500 dg 505m motorized glider was modified to remove all engine and related equipment and the space used for storage of liquid oxygen and a large supply of li so2 primary batteries . most of the instruments and electronics were replaced with equipment suitable for the extreme altitudes that the sailplane would encounter . duncan cummings of san pedro california built special lightweight efficient reliable faceplate heat controllers . butler parachute company built special high altitude stabilized parachutes . enevoldson and fossett flew the sailplane from california city for shakedown and preliminary high altitude flights in the sierra nevadas of california reaching over 42 000 feet in spring 2002 . in summer 2002 the sailplane was shipped to omarama new zealand where it flew during three winters without reaching the stratosphere . the timing was too early in the season . in 2005 the sailplane was shipped to el calafate argentina a small town at 50 south latitude . five attempts in a three week period none in favorable weather conditions were unsuccessful . in 2006 the forecast offered very favorable conditions on 28 august but at 33 000 feet in a strong climb steve fossett s pressure suit inflated prematurely and excessively and the flight was aborted . the next day on 29 august after one of the pressure suit regulators had been changed the weather conditions were still favorable the team made another attempt . after a four hour climb enevoldson and fossett reached the record altitude and with that they learned a great many new lessons . the concept had been validated . airbus perlan mission ii edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . july 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message after fossett s death in 2007 it appeared for a time that the mission was on permanent hiatus . however a new team gradually reassembled around enevoldson and partial funding was secured thanks to commitments from partners in the united states and australia . a great deal of design work has been done by greg cole of windward performance to show that a sailplane for 90 000 feet is relatively straightforward while 100 000 feet is possible although more difficult and expensive . windward performance will build the sailplane of high performance pre preg in production quality tooling . the sailplane requires relatively high end design analysis and construction to be flutter safe at very high true air speeds and strong enough for the potentially heavy turbulence that could be encountered at 90 000 feet . it must also have well proven fail safe pressurization and cabin air re cycling systems . in 2014 airbus group agreed to become the title sponsor and provide sufficient funding for completion of the aircraft flight testing and the altitude flights . the mission as renamed the airbus