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Students' Experiments To Fly By Glider To the Edge of Space
techmage writes: In 2002 Steve Fossett and Einar Enevoldson set the altitude record for a glider climbing to 42,000 feet in the Perlan I. This year the Perlan II glider will attempt to reach over 90,000 feet. Carried aboard will be be 10 science experiments from students participating in a Teachers in Space contest. Some of these experiments push the boundaries of what can be done at the K-12 level. This news article has a lot more detail on what these kids are sending.
Good points. Not all wave flights are so smooth:
http://www.aviationtoday.com/r...
http://www.paul.moggach.yorkso...
No one knows how high these waves travel, much less the edges of the rising, mid and falling air. You can't see rising air. There might be a cloud at the top. If it is there at 90,000 feet, I doubt it will be of much help when you are 20,000 feet below it. Instruments (total energy compensated variometer) can tell you if you are going up or down. Bumping into the edges tells you where the edge is.
The wind may well increase with altitude but the air density gets exponentially lower with altitude and at 90K its virtually a vacuum so you'd need a supersonic wind to even notice any significant affect on a plane the size of a glider.