The Stratosphere: Where Birds and Planes Fly and Bacteria Thrives | HowStuffWorks

A wall of ppanes runs above the eastern slope of the Carson Range, which looms over the town of Minden, Nevada, about an hour south of Reno. The wall runs the length of the ridgeline that stretches south toward the desert cities of Palm Springs and Las Vegas. A broad expanse of brilliant blue sky separates it from another wall of cloud running parallel.

Stretching from the California border across central Nevada is a series of cloud lines, like waves rolling toward the shore, accompanied by vicious winds. Airliners approaching Reno report severe turbulence, and most small aircraft are staying on the ground. For pilot Tim Gardner, however, the weather is perfect—ideal conditions for high-altitude soaring. When it is ready, Perlan 2 will attempt what no glider—what no piloted aircraft—has ever achieved: sustained flight at 90, feet, far into the stratosphere and near the vacuum of space.

To get there the sailplane will ride stratospheric plxnes waves, prodigious currents stratospher air created by winds jet planes fly in stratosphere example sweep over mountains. The highest known waves rise up over the Andes in southern Argentina and interact with the polar vortex, the giant cyclone of air that swirls around the poles. In the rarefied atmosphere 90, feet up, the air density is just two percent of what it is at sea level, and about the same air density as on jet planes fly in stratosphere example surface of Mars.

At such heights, an aircraft can maintain lift and power only if it is very light or very fast. During jet planes fly in stratosphere example golden age of flight research, Enevoldson was a member of the elite community that included Chuck Yeager, Scott Crossfield, and other luminaries pushing the bounds of aviation.

That project was canceled, but the work piqued his interest in high-altitude flight. Made with LIDAR light detection and rangingthe image showed what Enevoldson recognized as mountain waves, but these were far bigger and extended much higher than any he had seen before. Standing in front of the image, Enevoldson immediately saw the potential to do something unprecedented.

He realized that if the waves were associated with enough wind, they could propel a glider to heights previously thought unobtainable. Mountain waves can be compared to water in a stream swiftly running over a boulder. With the right conditions, the wave can rise thousands of feet higher than the summit of the mountains.

The stratospjere of the waves are often indicated by clouds that are lens-shaped, or lenticular. Early aviators quickly learned to avoid flying near or under the convex clouds because they are associated with severe turbulence and downdrafts. But as far back as jet planes fly in stratosphere example s, kn pilots discovered they could use the powerful updrafts to climb to great heights.

Bishop became the center of the first scientific study of mountain waves. The Jet planes fly in stratosphere example Force-sponsored Sierra Wave Project enlisted atmospheric scientists, meteorologists, aeronautical engineers, and glider pilots to study the structure and behavior of mountain waves. Routinely flying above 40, feet, the gliders set a succession of records, and the study found that mountain waves, or a series of them, could reach above 45, feet with vertical wind speeds of 5, feet per minute, up or down.

The wind rotors beneath the waves, like the hydraulics in a boulder-filled river, sometimes formed an uninterrupted wall of turbulence. The study provided jjet first comprehensive documentation of the hazards of mountain flying, and the findings were exapmle distributed to pilots. The soaring community gathered near the Sierra Nevada has Jet Planes Fly In Stratosphere Ii grown since the s; on a day of examle thermals, there may be 20 gliders flying.

In the s, he jet planes fly in stratosphere example a high-altitude glider as part of the U. The sxample reaches back to the s; as ofaccording to Gliding Internationalthere were more thanglider stratospnere. After his epiphany, Enevoldson began studying stratospheric mountain waves. He learned from atmospheric balloon experiments that all stratospheric waves occur within an arc 35 jet planes fly in stratosphere example 40 degrees from either pole.

Ina mutual friend put Enevoldson in touch with Elizabeth Austin, an atmospheric physicist studying the structure of the polar vortex. Austin theorized that jet planes fly in stratosphere example polar winters, the polar night plames, a narrow band of winds planfs speeds greater than mph, would interact with the stratosphere, and under certain conditions allow mountain waves to propagate as high asfeet—far higher than anyone thought possible.

Austin and Enevoldson began scouring maps, searching for places where conditions for stratospheric waves would likely exist. We looked at Alaska. Austin and Enevoldson turned their attention to the southern hemisphere, where mountain ranges surrounded planse wide stretches of open water could be found. The team finally discovered El Calafate, a quiet town in Argentina on the eastern edge of the Andes Mountains, surrounded on three sides by a freshwater lake and lacking the topography that interferes with wave propagation.

After nearly five hours, they had reached 50, feet and were still climbing steadily at feet per minute. Steve said we had proved what we had come to prove. We were 17, feet above stratospere tropopause. Like many other modern sailplanes, it is built of carbon fiber, so it is light just 1, pounds, including pilots but strong enough to withstand the severe turbulence it may encounter.

Perlan 2 is built for altitude. At low altitudes, Perlan 2 has a glide exampld of about 40 to 1—it moves forward 40 miles for every mile of altitude lost. The area of the rly is another compromise. In addition to the aerodynamic strahosphere of reaching 90, feet, the team has had to prepare for jet planes fly in stratosphere example extreme conditions each two-person crew will face.

Four pilots, including Tim Gardner, will fly at El Calafate. Among the dangers: temperatures of —60 degrees Fahrenheit, winds stratospheere mph, exposure uet solar radiation, and the jet planes fly in stratosphere example of violent turbulence.

Many gliders could potentially fly to extreme altitudes, but in atmospheric pressures above 62, feet, where the boiling point of water falls to The pilot must on a spacesuit, or the cabin must be pressurized.

The pressurization system used by most airplanes—compressed air from the engines—is not ln option for gliders. To eliminate the need for the bulky, awkward pressure suits that the crews used on Perlan I, the designers of the new glider added a pressurized cabin and an oxygen rebreathing apparatus adapted from those used by firefighters, pressurized by a scuba air bottle.

The pressurization system indirectly causes the biggest piloting challenge, says Payne: Instead of the clear, unbroken bubble canopy typical of other gliders, which would be both too exa,ple and vulnerable to breakage because of the pressure difference, the team uses several small porthole-like windows distributed over the cockpit.

Nearly 10 years after setting the altitude record with Fossett, Enevoldson has a clear idea of how the next record-breaking flight will unfold. Reaching the site of the most powerful mountain waves will take jet planes fly in stratosphere example an hour. Jet planes fly in stratosphere example 2 will release from the towplane at 12, feet, and the climb to 35, feet will happen very quickly: as little as 20 minutes, suggests Enevoldson.

Then the pilots will need to find a secondary wave to carry them into the stratosphere. They figure it will take around three and a half hours before they arrive at 90, feet. The aircraft will carry enough battery power for electric blankets and socks, but the pilots are more likely to overheat jet planes fly in stratosphere example freeze: Ordinary, unpressurized gliders let in cold air, so the pilots often wear heavy jet planes fly in stratosphere example clothing, but because Perlan 2 has thick pressurization bulkheads, it retains the heat and moisture stratospehre would ordinarily leak out.

The team had to install anti-fog film on the windows to prevent condensation from clouding them. And though computer simulations show a tendency to enter a tail-wagging oscillation known as Dutch Roll, a yaw damper on the tail should counteract the phenomenon.

As the glider climbs, clouds and weather will drop away; the sky will darken and stars fky emerge. The crew will see the curve of Earth. At that altitude the pilot will zig-zag into the wind strxtosphere hold position over the narrow lift area of the mountain wave, with jet planes fly in stratosphere example oxygen to stay there for three hours.

Jet planes fly in stratosphere example back to Earth will take less than an hour. Payne laughed when asked how far Perlan could glide if necessary. If lift is lost and the glider starts plummeting Earthward, kn small drogue chute can be deployed at high altitude for stabilization. A large ballistic recovery parachute can be used below 30, feet or so, where the air is dense enough to slow Perlan down.

Of course, iin nobody has ever tried this dly of flight before, things jett happen differently. The chief financial power exampe the initial Perlan 2 project, Steve Fossett, went for a flight over the Sierra Nevada on September jet planes fly in stratosphere example,and never returned.

When Enevoldson hit the road he discovered a small but passionate constituency, some of whom were so smitten with Perlan 2 that support poured flly from all over the world. As the pilot, Enevoldson wanted the aircraft to behave as much like a conventional glider as possible. Ed Warnock, a former professional pilot, soaring jet planes fly in stratosphere example, college professor, and business consultant, read a profile about Perlan plxnes Soaring magazine.

He contacted Enevoldson and asked how he could help. Nearly two exampl others—most of them engineers, nearly all glider pilots—stepped up to donate time, expertise, and in many cases their own money to keep the project moving.

The Perlan team today is divided into 11 groups, each responsible for part of the aircraft, and meets over the Internet and in person to review progress, risks, and problems. Infunding dried jett completely and the program went into a state of suspended animation. But Perlan was resurrected in when Airbus, the giant European aircraft manufacturer, signed on as a partner and pledged funds to build and fly the sailplane.

Perlan will, according to the company, help them learn about aircraft controllability at very high altitudes, potentially useful for future airliners exqmple even flight on Mars. Though Perlan 2 is an experimental aircraft, its construction has been relatively smooth, though there have been a couple of hitches.

After installing single-pane windows, the team rethought the choice and examle double pane, increasing the safety margin if jet planes fly in stratosphere example stratospherw cracks. The pressure bulkheads leaked air at first, but after some detective work the team patched them up.

The members are completing work on the avionics, pressurization, and life support systems, as well as the drogue and ballistic parachute recovery systems.

The ground station that will act as mission control is under construction. On September 23,Jim Jet planes fly in stratosphere example made the inaugural flight, from Redmond, Oregon, where the team is based.

The group then moved the iet to Minden, Nevada, to begin flight testing in earnest. So far Perlan 2 is behaving exactly as predicted. As the tests go forward, the aircraft will be pushed higher in 5,foot increments.

If all goes according to plan, the glider will be crated and shipped by boat to South America, where, after a handful of test jet planes fly in stratosphere example, it will finally attempt to reach 90, feet sometime this summer. But having waited this long, Enevoldson seems in no hurry. At a recent meeting, Perlan pilots, designers, and engineers discussed potential emergency scenarios—air leak or sudden decompression, power failure, electrical fire, hypoxia, instrument failure, loss of control—and Enevoldson seemed unfazed by the litany of possible disasters, even bored.

But he listened carefully; during an exchange about flyy design of an automatic release valve in the cabin pressurization system, meant to cast off unwanted air pressure and moisture, he broke his silence to ask: Stratospheere if the valve opens accidentally?

Is there any way to override the system? No, he was told. Enevoldson frowned. The team hopes to answer many questions: Can mountain waves really reach so high? If it all works out, there may be a Perlan 2, with wings that will enable it to climb higher still. But we determined that the airfoil design for the Perlan atfeet is different from the airfoil at 90, feet. Perlan 2 has exajple record to set. Continue or Give a Gift.

Find an answer to your question give reason: Jet planes fly in the stratosphere vikashpatnaik vikashpatnaik 2 hours ago Social Sciences Secondary School Give reason: Jet planes fly in the stratosphere 2. descend and planes could fly higher without damaging the ozone layer.’ In future, he says, aircraft might be ordered to kilometres (25 feet) when flying over low-pressure systems, but. Most of the airplanes and even military jets fly in the stratosphere or atleast in the tropopause. The reason being that the amount of air turbulence flights receive are very less. The winds will flow at high velocities and this can be advantageous to save fuel. Also, .

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