It's our first episode for 2025 so we're allowed to say Happy New Year, right? Even though it's February, right? We may be Australia's longest running aviation podcast but we're taking a very long time to get to episode 200 :)

This episode we follow our dreams into the stratosphere and beyond, featuring a great chat with the Monash High Powered Rocketry team from Monash University. These amazing students are building and fuelling rockets that get up well above the cruising altitudes of airliners and even most corporate jets. We also get even higher beyond 100,000 feet with High Altitude Balloons. It's heady, rarified stuff in this one, so strap in and get ready to go sky high as the episode starts with Steve & Grant catching you up on what's new in their worlds before it unfolds as:

0:06:05 - We chat with Megan Robinson, Oliver Lancaster and Redmond Henry from the Monash HPR team about the program, their rockets, recent results, future directions and even a hint of more content to come during 2025. These folks are amazing and its no wonder that many of the HPR alumni wind up working with Rocket Lab, Gilmour Space, Space X and other legendary aerospace companies. Thanks to Rachelle Patturajan from the team for helping to coordinate everyone's schedules.

0:26:53 - We play some promos for other shows and organisations that we like and want to help spread the word about.

0:29:01 - When Grant flies a hot air balloon, he thinks 10,000' is sky high, but Robert Brand and the team from Flight Design go well over ten times higher than that. We chat with Robert about High Altitude Balloons in general, the company's experiences to date working with the Australian Defence Force and local universities, plus some of the payloads they're working with and how these balloons could be used to provide services like a satellite at greatly reduced time and cost.

1:01:28 - Steve and Grant wrap up the show with a reminder that you can drop us a line via [email protected] to say Hi, tell us about your latest adventures, or even suggest a potential guest we should chat with. We also shout out to:

• The number of aviation podcasts that have sprung up while we were taking time off the airwaves.
• Stefan Drury's challenges in getting back flying again (if you're not following Stefan's YouTube channel, you should be!)
• Steve's Clear Signal radio show.
• Grant's work with Australian Defence Magazine including hosting their podcast and even writing articles.

Links:

• Monash HPR: www.monashhpr.com
• Flight Design: flightdesign.com.au
• Stefan Drury on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@StefanDrury
• Steve's Clear Signal: www.clearsignal.com.au
• Australian Defence Magazine: www.australiandefence.com.au
• Dave Homewood's Wings Over New Zealand show: cambridgeairforce.org.nz/WONZ_Show.html
• The Journey is the Reward show: thejourneyisthereward.org

Credits:

• Introduction voice over and closing credits by Terry Daniel: http://yourvoiceover.com.au
• Episode artwork photos thanks to Monash HPR and Flight Design

Contact us via [email protected]