Swedish Engineer's RC Plane Gets a Balloon Lift To Space 90
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."
I've always wanted to do this (Score:5, Insightful)
I wonder how he tested the radio link. That would be the main technical challenge, I would think.
Edge of space? (Score:5, Insightful)
Not to dismiss this guy's accomplishments, but saying his model plane reached the "edge of space" is sort of like saying I've reached the "edge of the ocean" when I'm at Times Square in New York City.
Typically, the "edge of space" is 100km up [guardian.co.uk] (the United States is a bit more lenient, and puts it at at around 80km up and you get astronaut wings if you make it that high).
He hasn't even made it a third of the way there.
Still neat, but it could have done without the hyperbole.
Re:cool (Score:2, Insightful)
Don't be so sure. I remember the twin-fan personal "thing" the Mythbusters built, they had some guys from the FAA look at it and catalog it and they determined that, because of the weight, there wasn't a license requirement to fly it.
A small project like this, I guess depending on weight, altitude, motors, source of power/fuel and a couple of other factors that I have no idea... might not need permission from the FAA to get off the ground. If you've got a project in mind, it never hurts to check.
It's like asking a hot girl out to dinner. Before you even start you already have the "no", just need to work to turn it into a "yes"...with lesser or greater degree of difficulty
All hobbyist should consider using hydrogen (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.