Featured speaker is record-setting test pilot, Einar Enevoldson

SEATTLE, March 5, 2013--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. 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.
Photo: 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.
Access this and all other Museum of Flight news releases online at:
http://www.museumofflight.org/press/archives

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The independent, non-profit Museum of Flight is one of the largest air and space museums in the world, attracting more than 500,000 visitors annually. The Museum's collection includes more than 160 historically significant air- and spacecraft, the original manufacturing facility of The Boeing Co., and the world's only full-scale NASA Space Shuttle Trainer. The Museum's aviation and space library and archives are the largest on the West Coast. More than 100,000 individuals are served annually by the Museum's on-site and outreach educational programs. The Museum of Flight is accredited by the American Association of Museums, and is an Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.

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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