Airbus backs a glider setting sights on the stratosphere Airbus Group tests a pioneering glider with its CEO as co-pilot, in a project it hopes will see the unpowered 'Perlan' glider hit the stratosphere and break altitude records. The Perlan project, run by volunteers but backed financially by Airbus, hopes to use so-called 'mountain waves' in the Andes to reach an altitude of 90,000 feet (27,400 meters), almost double the previous record for an unpowered aircraft and higher than the famous Cold War spy plane the SR71 Blackbird. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES