i saw an article in today’s Courier-Journal about an interesting project at the University of Kentucky College of Engineering called BIG BLUE (Baseline Inflatable Glider Balloon Launched Unmanned Experiment). Essentially, it’s a balloon-launched glider designed for atmospheres like Mars. Mars has an atmosphere that is 1% as dense as the Earth, so flying is MUCH harder. The cool thing about this plane is that the wings are deployed at an altitude of 100,000 feet. And they are just unfolded — they are inflated! But you can’t fly with non-rigid wings, right? Right. Well, those crafty sons-of-guns came up with the idea for a ultraviolet-hardening epoxy to harden the wings at altitude! Crazy stuff.

Anyway, NASA is partially funding this project, and they have an article about it’s test flight.

The official site (fairly crude) is linked above, but if you want to see some cool wind-tunnel footage of these wings, you can go here and some documentary footage of the launch can be viewed here.