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High altitude gliding attempt gives Canterbury project a lift
Reprinted from the University of Canterbury's Chronicle - 22/10/03
United States millionaire and adventurer Steve Fossett hopes to glide into
the record book with help from scientists at the University of Canterbury.
In return the University's Physics and Astronomy Department will gain an
unprecedented glimpse of the upper atmosphere.
Since Christmas physics lecturer Dr Adrian McDonald and technician Geoff
Graham have been working on a small, unmanned glider designed to take
atmospheric samples. A review of their work on the department's website
attracted the attention of Mr Fossett's Perlan Project which is attempting
to break the world gliding altitude record.
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Geoff Graham take the controls of the prototype glider being developed in
the Physics Department
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A member of the Perlan Project contacted Dr McDonald and offered him the
chance to place instruments on Mr Fossett's glider. It is hoped the
instruments will verify the stratospheric conditions required to lift a
glider to 100,000 feet.
The Perlan project team, including co-pilot and former NASA test pilot
Elinar Enevoldson, had hoped to attempt the record last month but
conditions over Omarama in the Mackenzie Country were not suitable. The
team hopes for better conditions in either late September or early October.
Based on current aircraft limitations, phase one of the attempt is limited
to 62,000 feet. Currently the world record is 49,009 feet set by Bob Harris
in California in 1986.
The millions spent by Mr Fossett on the Perlan Project is a far cry from
the $5000 spent by the Physics Department developing its prototype glider.
The glider, with a wingspan of 1.5m, is equipped with a set of
meteorological measurement sensors that record pressure, temperature,
relative humidity, wind speed and direction.
Meteorological agencies around the world launch millions of rawinsondes
each year to gather data for numerical weather prediction models. Most are
expendable packages attached to helium or hydrogen-filled weather balloons
and only a small number of the sensors are retrieved.
Canterbury's prototype is different in that it will be able to autonomously
glide itself back to the ground station with the aid of a digital compass
and a global positioning system.
"This makes it cheap and reusable," said Dr McDonald.
"The use of a recoverable rawinsonde package could significantly reduce the
cost of routine observations by meteorological services and thus may be
important in increasing the amount of atmospheric information measured. The
cost-effectiveness of such a system may be of significant use in increasing
the number of launches made in third world countries."
The glider is designed to be launched from a weather balloon. The
difficulty and expense of frequent balloon launches means the prototype has
its own engine and can take off from the ground. The prototype has been
tested at the Kaiapoi Model Air Club Field at Swannanoa but the range of
the radio-control system has limited test flights to less than 2km.
The Perlan Project is not the only party interested in the work being
carried out by the Canterbury team with the National Institute of Water and
Atmospheric Research (NIWA) also expressing interest, Dr McDonald said.
"NIWA are particularly interested in the prototype's ability to make
measurements at low altitudes."
With the help of undergraduate student Andreas Baumgartner unique
observations of the sea breeze have already been made, added Dr McDonald.
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