U.S. Tycoon Aims to Surf Wind Wave to Edge of Space

[Geoffrey]

is it just me, or is this guy ASKING for it!



U.S. Tycoon Aims to Surf Wind Wave to Edge of Space
Thu Jul 18, 2:19 AM ET
By Graeme Peters

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Round-the-world balloonist Steve Fossett is aiming for another aviation first later this month by co-piloting a glider to 63,000 feet above New Zealand's Southern Alps mountains.



High above the mountains that form New Zealand's spine, NASA ( news - web sites) test pilot Einar Enevoldson and Fossett will attempt to surf on turbulent "mountain waves" of wind into the stratosphere and smash the previous gliding altitude record by 14,000 feet.

Fossett, a U.S. business tycoon and adventurer, made it into the record books this month as the first to make a solo balloon flight around the world.

The current glider altitude record of 49,007 feet for a sailplane was set by American Bob Harris near Mount Whitney in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California in 1986.

The New Zealand record attempt is part of the Perlan Project, a scientific program that seeks to better understand stratospheric mountain waves of air. The waves form when strong winds flow over a mountain range creating ripples like water over rocks in a fast-moving stream.

Fossett is expected to arrive early next week at the project site in Omarama, a remote village around 300 miles southwest of Wellington, where the Perlan team is stalking the record in steps, through a series of flights that will gradually go higher and higher.

"We go a block at a time, and clear the envelope (of airspace) for the next block. We will not be doing high altitude wave stuff, which I consider above 40,000 feet, until some time next week," flight test engineer Pat Seamount said on Thursday.

Perlan Project pilots flew two successful low-level test flights last week but unsuitable weather delayed the next set of tests, riding a wave up to 20,000 feet.

"We've had bad weather for us because we are looking for wave. And we've had fog and snow and clear days that did not have the wave," Seamount said.

She said the team hoped to make its first attempt at mountain wave flying in its modified two-seat German sailplane this weekend, if the New Zealand winter weather conditions were suitable.

Pilots surfing the mountain waves face the risk of hitting severe high-altitude turbulence and must maintain high speeds to stay aloft in the thin air.

According to a research paper on the Project Perlan Web site, the team's glider -- which flies at around 56 mph at sea level -- must travel at 256 mph to stay aloft at 69,000 feet. The Perlan Project is named after the Icelandic word for pearl, a reference to polar stratospheric clouds likened to mother-of-pearl.

[Manu]

Its pretty cool though.

I wonder if anything USEFUL comes out of these 'daredevil' stunts.

And then I wonder how much all of these 'stunts' cost?