Airbus completed a test flight of a glider set to eventually travel to the edge of space, in a pioneering step into the stratosphere.The Perlan 2′s flight, from an airstrip in the western US state of Nevada, lasted just a few minutes -instead of 30 minutes to two hours as scheduled -due to heavy rain. The flight aims to test how well an aircraft and its crew can fare in conditions similar to those on Mars, with extremely thin atmosphere and bitterly cold temperatures. Airbus, supporting the Mission Perlan 2 group that launched the ambitious project, aims to test every aspect of the unpowered aircraft, flying it at various speeds and altitudes and subjecting it to diffe rent scenarios of stress and vibration. Its designers hope to show that the lightweight aircraft, with its extremely long, thin wings, is strong enough to resist intense stresses that could destroy a less solid plane. In the end, only stability, speed and efficiency were tested, as the plane flew at just 7,000 feet (2,130 metres) for its brief journey . “The airplane is very stable. We got what we called dead beat response, so the way we like it,“ said chief pilot Jim Payne. Perlan 2 also aims to collect atmosphe ric data useful in fighting climate change as it travels to the edge of space.
Source: http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/
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