HWR Website – English short version
Important details about our project
Breaking the altitude record with a chain of kites
(this text will not be updated regularly !!)
The present holder of the altitude record with a chain of kites is the German Weatherservice (Deutscher Wetterdienst). The record was archived on the 1st of August 1919.
It basically happened without a specific intention to place a new record. A mere daily flight for the simple reason of collecting weather data was the reason.
At the end of the flight the recorded data from the barograph and the thermometer allowed the calculation of the reached height. The barograph though stopped measuring at a lower height but the thermometer kept logging the temperaturs. Thus the reached height was archived 9740m above sealevel.
Our goal is to break this record by reaching an altitude of at least 10km with a chain of kites. The type of kite is a special version of the so called „Lynn Box“ which initially was invented by Peter Lynn from New Zealand. (See pictures) In the past the kiteflyers used pianowire with diameters between 0.5 to 1 mm. Today we have the advantage of using hi-tech lines like Dyneema / Spectra. We will likely need upto 20.000m of a Dyneema line with 2mm diameter, thus having enough breaking strength for the numbers of kites we expect to use to carry the line upto 10 km.
To handle the line we will use an electronic driven winch and winder. This is an especially developed engine by our sponsor „Getriebebau Nord“ domiciled north of Hamburg. This company gives us an immense help and know-how enabling us to manage this important part for this project.
We need GPS transmitter in the top kite as well as with other kites in the chain enabling us to observe the whole chain on our laptops. Simultaneously we will feed these information into the internet.
All the flights from many testflights to the final recordflights need very detailed weather forecasting upto the targeted height. We are proud to have a locally well known meteorologist in our team giving us such important service.
Besides the fact that the engine is presently under construction we have achieved following enabling factors:
An agreement with all authorities to fly to such heights.
A suitable launch site directly at the seaside (Baltic Sea) enabling us to fly only over water.
A liability insurance.
There is though one condition we have to fulfull. The authorities asked us to ensure that we can quickly take the kitechain out of the for us established no-fly-zone in case of emergency. The only chance to do this is to have so called linecutters placed in the main line.
These linecutters are radiocontrolled and can be activated by us in case of need respectively by order of the authorities. By cutting the flying chain into several sections we enabling the system to come down quicker. Winding the whole system with our winch/winder will definitely be far too slow.
One of our main targets is safety and again safety in order to minimize every risk we think we can try to avoid. We have not yet a fixed timeframe for the flights as we still need to build/test the engine and also still have to build many kites (we reckon 20 are needed – 6 we are just about to finish.
What we have to say is that this project generally arouses a lot of positive response and willingness to support us in many ways. Otherwise we would not be there were we are today.
Still we are in need of a lot of support ! Especially money ! The biggest costfactor will be the Dynema line of 20km length (we reckon/hope for a low 5 digit amount).
Each Kite we need to build has a price tag of ard € 120,- In case you like to help us please contact below person in order to give you our Project Bank Account.
Of course all sponsors will be mentioned on our website respectively companies willing to support us will be linked with their homepage.
For example: If you want to sponsor one kite you have the option to own the kite together with a certificate of its height the kite has reached during the flights, after we finished this project. Successfully or not!
You can also sponsor a part of the line and own her afterwards. Call me to tell you how much money will be involved for which length. It shouldn’t be too short as this makes things too complicated.
These offers are always subject to availability of the sponsored things. We can always loose kites und parts of the line during testflights and recordflights.
You can contact the person below – also for more actual information about the status of our project:
Thomas Hartmann
thomas.hartmann@hoehenflugrekord.de
phone: +49408300487
mobile: +49 (0)172 45 36 130
Please note: This english Version will not be updated regulary!