Autonomous Model Glider Flies from 60,000 Feet

saccade writes "A couple years ago we read about a telemetry laden balloon launched to 80,000 feet single-handedly built by a laid-off engineer. Here's an even more elaborate one built at around the same time: A balloon launched model glider taken to about 60,000 feet that autonomously finds its way home. It had an auto-pilot and elaborate mission control system. Also impressive is the extensive testing done before launch."

Comments

On the off chance it's slashdotted:

[Saint Aardvark]

http://www.saintaardvarkthecarpeted.com/mirror/son de

All I have to say is "WOW". And well done.

For once I read the FA

[toby]

And noted that the glider was eventually lost in inaccessible terrain, due to drift after launch and various other problems...

Sept 6, 2003: Glider Lost, 50nm north of the nearest paved road

Back to the drawing board...

Re:Wow

[chinakow]

they already do, I saw a video where the pilots said the autoland is great in fog, zero visibility but the plane fined the runway, the real problem is taxing to the gate when you can't see out the window.

Anyway, it took me a while to find someone talking specificly about a 747 but here is a linkhttp://www.airliners.net/discussions/general_a viation/read.main/1882971/

Forget emergencies, try routine basis to keep certified, if you travel a lot, you probably have already been on an aircraft that has done an autolanding.