Altitude Record

[Danthekiwi]

Hey guys,

Just as a matter of interest does anyone here know what the altitude record is for a LTA craft? I know there is a limit as once there is no air to be lighter than the gas stops lifting, im sure that some crazy frenchman skydived out of something really high but I cant remember exact figures.

Ive tried googleing but i only seem to get info bout Hot Air baloons

[Astroboy]

Danthekiwi,
Captain Joseph Kittinger USAF jumped from a balloon at an altitude of 102,800 feet (31,333 meters) in 1960. Imagine jumping from an aircraft almost twenty miles above the Earth! Now that's skydiving.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Excelsior

[Charles Adams]

The Japanese have apparently tested an unmanned blimp that would go all the way to the edge of the atmosphere to become a high-altitude observation platform for surveillance purposes.

[Jake]

I think that weather balloons, used mainly for earth science and astronomy, are pretty much the highest altitude suborbital craft around.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_altitude_balloon

Wikipedia's figure is 36,500 m. Insane!

[JoeVanCleave]

High-altitude research balloons are credited with the altitude record; these are made from polyethelene and/or mylar film, are inflated to only ~10% of their eventual full volume, and expand as they rise into the ever-thinning atmosphere. Some of these balloons, when fully inflated, can fit a football field inside their girth. These balloons usually carry scientific experimentation which is required to operate above most of the earth's atmosphere, like radiation measurement and astronomical telescopes.

'Weather balloons' are typically considered to be smaller, elastic latex balloons that are used to carry instrumentation aloft, but not nearly as high as the plastic filmed balloons. Weather balloons are used to measure conditions within the atmosphere, rather than on top of the atmosphere.

There are also several websites of amateur groups who are sending instrumented helium balloons aloft, sometimes outfitted with video or still cameras, GPS, and ham-based telemetry; some of these have approached 100k feet altitude. Poor man's rocketry.

As for airships (i.e. powered balloons), one of the WW1 Zeppelins are credited with the altitude record; 24,000 feet or thereabouts; I don't recall the hull number of the ship.

~Joe

[Alan Sherwood]

The official altitude record (recognised by FAI) for an airship is 8180 m (26,800 ft) set in 2006 by a Russian hot-air(!) airship. This beats L55's 1917 unofficial record of 24,000 ft.

I don't have too many details about this airship, but it looks like a typical hot-air airship (eg Cameron) and is probably very marginal in forward flight performance. This begs the question what is an airship? If you take a balloon and stick a small electric fan out the side have you made an airship? Given that balloons are unchallenged in absolute altitude, there's a quick way to get an airship altitude record. I have done some enquiries, but there is no clear forward performance requirements for airships in the FAI, which to my mind makes altitude records for airships rather meaningless.

Interestingly, the official distance and duration records are still held by the Graf Zeppelin. the speed record is held by the Zeppelin NT; 115 kph (71 mph). Many of the large rigids, and the US Navy nonrigids, would have beaten this.