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back to article Plucky Swede glides spaceplane to Earth from edge of stratosphere

The Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team would like to raise a pint or two today to David Windestål - a Swedish radio-controlled aircraft enthusiast who recently pulled off an impressive "Space Glider" flight from a dizzying 33,000m. David's audacious mission involved taking an off-the-shelf Muliplex FunJet ( …

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  1. Mondo the Magnificent
    Pint

    Amazing!

    Great little mission and a good video of the entire adventure..

    It's amazing how ingenious some people can be, using an over the counter RC plane, Helium weather balloon, and other available gadgets, including the GoPro camera to achieve the kind of feats that were limited to science labs and universities a decade or so ago.

    The reasonably priced and rugged GoPro camera has really revolutionised video footage for amateurs undertaking high altitude adventures like this,

    Thanks ElReg, for not letting the Scandanavian's little experiment go unnoticed..

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Mushroom

      Re: Amazing!

      Indeed - amazing!

      But check out the colour of the top of the gas tank - that's not helium, it's something lighter ...

      1 1
      1. Tom 7
        Reply Icon

        Re: Amazing!

        And why use helium - hydrogen is perfect? Its no more dangerous than helium in this sort of situation and a lot cheaper.

        11 out of 10 for the man.

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        1. Anonymous Coward
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          Happy

          Re: Amazing!

          ooooh - you don't want to say that in front of the SPB! They get a bit tetchy ...

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      2. Andus McCoatover
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        Windows

        "That's not helium, it's something lighter"

        Erm....

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    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Happy

      Re: Amazing!

      I am wondering, as I do, that I'd like to do it as a series of balloons, all with the bare minimum of lift (allowing for leakage etc) so that as the altitude increases, the balloons go up way higher, before popping, or needing to be cut loose.

      I also think that at that altitude, with enough balloons, etc., it may be possible with a rocket, to achieve orbital velocity.... if only half way around the earth.

      Or to buy a roll of the plastic film that dry cleaners use to make covers from, and to weld up a HUGE balloon from it......

      Ooooooooo this is an itch I just have to scratch....

      Dammit...

      It was the Space Wars shows I saw as a kid on TV....

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  2. MrT

    Excellent effort!

    This high-altitude stuff is turning out to be quite a popular hobby in all it's different versions... Landing right at his feet would have been the highest of fives, mind - quite literally still something worth aiming for :-D Well done!

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    No legoman or playmobileman pilot? No wonder it almost failed, this time he was lucky.

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    1. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge
      Reply Icon

      Hehehehe ^_^

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Marvellous

    Have an upvote, Mr Windestål.

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  5. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge
    Thumb Up

    Excellent stuff!

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  6. Mussie (Ed)
    Thumb Up

    wow what a pic.....

    See title

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  7. TheTrouser
    Thumb Up

    Well done that man!

    *Applause*

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  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Glad they waited for a foggy day

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    1. petur
      Reply Icon

      indeed... without the clouds/fog it might have been easier/possible to navigate to his feet

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      1. Tom 7
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        Petur

        you missed the bit about the loss of communications and the lake then?

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  9. Geoff Thompson

    Excellent

    Well done that man, very enjoyable video too!

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  10. Winkypop Silver badge
    Pint

    Swede..t

    Nice job!

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  11. Shasta McNasty
    Thumb Up

    Impressive

    How long before some ties themselves to a weather balloon and glides back down to Earth in a glider suit?

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  12. Peter Simpson 1
    Mushroom

    LOHAN II

    For the next flight, has the SPB considered using Hydrogen as a lifting gas rather than Helium? Far cheaper and saves the scarce Helium.

    //playmonaut not a smoker, is he?

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: LOHAN II

      Pay attention chaps, see pic 5 & 6.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        Re: LOHAN II

        re: Pic 6, clearly a frightening experience... #wetspot

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      2. Peter Simpson 1
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        Thumb Up

        Re: LOHAN II

        As usual, the SPB is ahead of the curve!

        //I stand corrected, thanks

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  13. deshepherd

    Could combine this with James May's GPS controlled balsa glider crossing of (a section of water the same widths as) then English Channel .... I'm sure he could spin that out into a program reclaiming the UKs space heritage along with a link with some toy of the past ("Remember when you were a child and you had one of those stomp rockets where you stamped on a pump to launch a rocket which went up and then landed back beside you ... did you ever wonder about being able to launch it all the way to space? ....."). Ok, BBC, over to you now ... just put in a "from an original idea by ..." line in the creedits please!

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    1. graeme leggett Silver badge
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      that's exactly the sort of line May would say. If he's not available how about you act as a stand in?

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  14. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Awesome!

    Skål, David! :-)

    Well done, that was awesome.

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  15. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Damn!

    The footage was incredible.

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  17. John Gamble

    Excellent Footage and Narration

    It's also interesting to see how quickly the horizon adopts its curvature at high altitude.

    Thanks for the link.

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    1. Martin Budden Silver badge
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      Boffin

      Re: Excellent Footage and Narration

      The fish-eye lens on the camera was responsible for almost all the curvature you see in the video.

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      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
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        Happy

        Re: Excellent Footage and Narration

        "The fish-eye lens on the camera"...was doing some very weird things to the impression oh horizon curvature. It appeared to be flipping between convex and concave in very trippy way.

        Icon...for the trippyness.

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  18. cynic 2
    Go

    T-shirt

    He deserves a coveted SPG T-Shirt as a fellow traveller, surely?

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    1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: T-shirt

      He does. However, there are only three in existence. Maybe it's time to look into a short production run...

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      1. Mostly_Harmless Silver badge
        Reply Icon
        Coat

        @Lester Re: T-shirt

        "a short production run"

        Would that be a production run of a limited quantity, or production run of apparel aimed exclusively at Geordies?

        <--<--<-- icon used in an ironic way, as everyone knows Geordies don't wear coats

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        1. Anonymous Coward
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          Devil

          Re: @Lester T-shirt

          I wouldn't hold my breath waiting a t-shirt from El Reg - It's been five years since I won the WiReD contest and I still haven't got mine!

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  19. Andus McCoatover
    Windows

    Did really like the KISS release mechanism!

    A resistor and a matchhead. I'd wondered if the match would've got too sogy to ignite. Maybe that was the delay that caused the latex to flap around for a bit -- match had to be dried out for awhile, before it'd burn.

    Dunno.

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