Video - Tom Enders at the Perlan II stratospheric glider controls

Last Saturday, the head of Airbus Group added a new accomplishment to his C.V. Tom Enders, who is an experienced paratrooper and Ecureuil helicopter pilot (H125), performed as co-pilot on a fifteen-minute test flight of the Perlan II stratospheric glider developed by the group’s innovation branch.

After taking-off from the small Minden-Tahoe airport in Nevada (western United States), the pilot, Jim Payne, allowed Tom Enders to take control of the aircraft.

Tom Enders, CEO of Airbus Group: interview in the video.

In August the pressurized two-seater glider will attempt to reach 90,000 feet (27,000 metres) with the aid of the powerful ascending air currents (mountain waves) over Argentina; a first step in this scientific project to study climate change and the state of our ozone layer - and in so doing perhaps give the next generation of aerospace pioneers something real to aim for.