Highest flight in a glider (male)

The absolute highest altitude reached in a glider is 15,902 m (52,172 ft), achieved on 3 September 2017, by Jim Payne (USA) and his co-pilot Morgan Sandercock (Australia) flying the Airbus Perlan 2 glider from Comandante Armando Tola International Airport in El Calafate, Argentina.

The Perlan 2 was towed to a height of 3,200 m (10,500 ft). Then "mountain waves", created by the interaction of strong winds with the mountainous terrain of Argentina’s Patagonia region, lifted the aircraft to its record altitude. The glider, which weighs just 500 kg (1,100 lb) and has a wingspan of 25.6 m (84 ft), climbed at a rate of 91 metres per minute (300 feet per minute) in a flight lasting 6.6 hours. The glider is operated by the Perlan Project, a non-profit aeronautical research organization based in Oregon, USA.

The organization plans to reach 27,500 m (90,000 ft) in the future – taking a glider to the very edge of space.