Fossett sets Glider Altitude Record

[mzaharis]

50,699 ft in a Chilean mountain wave, with Co-pilot (their term) Einar Enevoldson.

http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=2006a3d7-ef6a-4f65-a020-3f73c07d7a2b&

 

[Gorilla]

Wow. I was wondering about the pressure suit issue. The article explains it. Anything above about 45,000' without one is asking for big trouble.

It's interesting that the composite components shrugged off such temperatures with no problems, especially the flexible wings.

At 60/1 glide, 50,000' would give you over 500 miles in still air!

 

[dav8or]

I wish I was a billionare and could spend all my time breaking records.

 

[tuna pimp]

This at least gives me a goal to shoot for this weekend in the mighty Ka8.

 

[Huggyu2]

I was wondering about the pressure suit issue. Anything above about 45,000' without one is asking for big trouble.

Einar was out at Beale AFB about 4 years ago looking for expertise and gave a briefing on their plan. Looking at the picture in the article, Fossett is wearing a David Clark 1034 pressure suit. Einar appears to be wearing an older one, maybe a 1031. In any case, these are designed so that once you hit 35,000', the aneroids shut off the flow, and your body basically doesn't go above 35,000'.
There's nothing magic about 45,000. Bruce Bohannon didn't wear a pressure suit at those heights. To mitigate the risk, he pre-breathed 100% oxygen for well over an hour to de-nitrogenate his blood, and minimize his chances of getting decompression sickness (DCS). I'm sure Fosset and Einar did too. The pressure suit really becomes an issue when you hit Armstrong's Line -- 63,000'. At that altitude, the pressure is so low that the nitrogen will boil out of your blood. That's bad.

 

[Gorilla]

Einar was out at Beale AFB about 4 years ago looking for expertise and gave a briefing on their plan. Looking at the picture in the article, Fossett is wearing a David Clark 1034 pressure suit. Einar appears to be wearing an older one, maybe a 1031. In any case, these are designed so that once you hit 35,000', the aneroids shut off the flow, and your body basically doesn't go above 35,000'.
There's nothing magic about 45,000. Bruce Bohannon didn't wear a pressure suit at those heights. To mitigate the risk, he pre-breathed 100% oxygen for well over an hour to de-nitrogenate his blood, and minimize his chances of getting decompression sickness (DCS). I'm sure Fosset and Einar did too. The pressure suit really becomes an issue when you hit Armstrong's Line -- 63,000'. At that altitude, the pressure is so low that the nitrogen will boil out of your blood. That's bad.

I don't doubt your numbers, but "the bends", gaseous evolution from blood nitrogen, is a totally variable phenomenon. Ask divers; you can have two guys dive the exact same profile, and one gets bent, the other, not. My point is you can get bent below 63,000', while above that, probably guaranteed. The rate of decompression is important, too. If you are at 50,000' in a Gulfstream, and lose the cabin, there's an excellent chance you're going to get hurt really badly.

Prebreathing O2 will do wonders for this type of flight. We used to prebreathe 100% O2 prior to our altitude chamber rides in the military. It's the smart thing to do.