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Swedish Engineer's RC Plane Gets a Balloon Lift To Space

Posted by timothy on from the purely-awesome dept.

mask.of.sanity writes "A Swedish engineer has sent his radio controlled airplane to the edge of space using a weather balloon. It reached 33,100 metres before the balloon popped. The trip is captured on film and he has detailed the project in a blog. Amazing stuff."

2 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. I've always wanted to do this by MetalliQaZ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wonder how he tested the radio link. That would be the main technical challenge, I would think.

    --
    "Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
  2. All hobbyist should consider using hydrogen by slacka · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Where I live helium is ridiculously expensive. So I went with the much cheaper alternative, hydrogen. It’s also more buoyant, about 8% more. Which means a higher burst altitude as you can use less gas."

    Bonus points for using hydrogen instead of helium. Hydrogen is not dangerous if handled properly and helium is a scarce resource needed for many medical uses like MRIs.