OVERVIEW The Perlan Project’s engineless sailplane aircraft, the Perlan 2, is designed to glide on air currents to 90,000 feet, at the edge of space, to study Earth’s climate. Due to the flexibility of the light composite aircraft, flutter in these conditions can pose significant risk, which makes ground vibration testing to characterize the flexibility critically important. In preparation for the upcoming Perlan 2 flight test program, ATA Engineering, Inc., (ATA) provided aeroelasticity support to help evaluate the stability of the aircraft and ensure the safety and success of the flight test. This Perlan 2 project is an example of how ATA uses a combination of test and analysis to support our customers. TASKS PERFORMED & KEY OUTCOMES h Developed dynamic finite element model (FEM)

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