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March 16-17 Soaring Expo Showcases World of Silent Flight

Featured speaker is record-setting test pilot, Einar Enevoldson

SEATTLE, – -Soaring Expo, the Seattle Glider Council’s annual celebration of the world of silent flight, is at The Museum of Flight the weekend of March 16-17. The event’s featured speaker is Einar Enevoldson, a former NASA test pilot who holds world flight records in everything from fighter jets to gliders.

Einar EnevoldsonPhoto: NASA test pilot Einar Enevoldson in the cockpit of the X-24B research aircraft after a successful landing at Edwards Air Force Base in the 1970s. This rocket plane landed as a glider and helped pave the way for the space shuttle. NASA photo.

Enevoldson’s 2 p.m. presentation on March 16 will look back at his remarkable flights and his current project to fly a glider to the upper edge of the atmosphere. Full-size gliders and radio-controlled gliders will be on display all weekend. Representatives of local soaring clubs will be on hand to answer questions about the sport of soaring or becoming a glider pilot. Soaring Expo and Enevoldson’s lecture are free with admission to the Museum.

Soaring Expo Presentation with Test Pilot Einar Enevoldson
Saturday, March 16, 2 p.m.

Einar Enevoldson is a former NASA test pilot who flew many exotic research aircraft including the Mach 3 Blackbird and the last NASA rocket plane, the X-24B. His record-setting flights include the absolute altitude record flight for gliders (to over 50,000 feet with adventurer Steve Fossett, 2008, in the Perlan 1 glider); in 1958 he flew an F-104 fighter to height of 82,020 ft. in a record speed of less than four and a half minutes. Enevolson is currently spearheading the Perlan II Project with a goal of soaring up to 90,000 feet using a unique, pressurized high altitude glider that is now under construction in Bend, Oregon. His Museum presentation will explain how such remarkable flights are possible in a glider, and how even climate change has become a factor in high altitude soaring.

The Museum of Flight is located at 9404 E. Marginal Way S., Seattle, Exit 158 off Interstate 5 on Boeing Field half-way between downtown Seattle and Sea-Tac Airport. The Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $18 for adults, $14 for seniors 65 and older, $13 for active military, $9 for youth 5 to 17, and free for children under 5. Group rates are available. Admission on the first Thursday of the month is free from 5 to 9 p.m. courtesy of Wells Fargo. McCormick & Schmick’s Wings Café is on site. For general Museum information, please call 206-764-5720 or visit www.museumofflight.org

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