10 October 2006
An American company is currently making final preparations for a crack at the world height record for “weight-shift control Light Sport Aircraft”.
The current record is 31,000 ft and is held by the French. The US team hopes to be able to reach 40,000 ft.
It’s the project of Southwestern Aerotrekking Academy, whose team is currently practising at around 15,000 ft. SAA’s test pilot Kristof Cappoen said and the company’s engineers are currently calculating whether any modifications will be required to the steel and carbon-fibre Rotax-powered Tanarg “kite wings” they’ll be using. They look darn like flexwing microlights to us.
The team hopes to have broken the record by early next summer.
Aerotrekking – which is SAA’s more normal occupation – is a new sport in the US, ironically involving “the art of low level flying following the contour of the ground”. Not much of that at 40,000 ft.
<a href=’http://www.aerotrekking.com’ target=’_blank’>Southwestern Aerotrek webiste</a>
