MIGUEL ITURMENDI-COPADO

Miguel Angel (born October 20, 1971) is a Spanish Test Pilot who has called Florida home for the last 20 years. He holds degrees in Aeronau-tics and Flight Test Engineering, is a graduate of the National Test Pilot School and member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots. With over 10,000 flight hours and 12 PIC type ratings, he has served as experimen-tal test pilot on numerous prototypes including the Perlan 2, Aurora’s Odysseus, Honda Jet and the Saab 340 MBSAR. Known as “Tato” among his pilot peers, he earned a Triple Lennie Pin for soaring and has flown more than 160 types of air vehicles.

August 28, 2018 marked the “high”light of Tato’s flying career to date. On that day he co-piloted the Airbus Perlan Mission II world record flight for altitude in a glider, reaching 65,000 feet in El Calafate, Argentina. The pressurized Perlan 2 glider, which is designed to soar up to 90,000 feet, passed the Armstrong Line, the point in the atmosphere above which an unprotected human’s blood will boil if an aircraft loses pressurization. To add a “fast” to the “high”, Miguel also co-piloted the Perlan 2 during the flight achieving the fastest known speed of Mach 0.48 in a glider over the same remote region of Argentine Patagonia.

Two records that also caught the attention of the former King of Spain, Juan Carlos I, who sent Miguel congratulations for his aeronautic feat.