Posted on: Tuesday, August 21, 2001

100-hour Helios flight set for 2003

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua‘i Bureau

MANA, Kaua'i — The experimental flying wing Helios, which last week set an altitude record for non-rocket powered aircraft, is going into storage for two years while technology catches up to the dreams of its designers.

The unmanned, experimental aircraft, which gets its power from hundreds of photovoltaic panels under its transparent wing fabric, set the record when it sailed to 96,500 feet over Kaua'i on Aug. 13. "We believe the aircraft, under the right conditions, is more than capable of surpassing 100,000 feet," said NASA Dryden Flight Research Center spokesman Alan Brown.

But NASA won't try to reach the 100,000-foot goal. The Helios project is now moving on to the more important goal of remaining aloft for extended periods.

During its record-breaking flight, Helios, a wing 246 feet long with 14 electric motors running its propellers, stayed above 96,000 feet for 40 minutes.

NASA and AeroVironment are shooting for a 100-hour flight in the summer of 2003.

That will require batteries that haven't been invented. Groups working with NASA on the project hope to develop an energy storage system that can be recharged with excess power from the solar cells during the day, and provide enough power to keep Helios aloft all night.

With the work being done on Helios, NASA hopes to develop an unmanned aircraft that can stay aloft indefinitely and serve as a platform for photographic and other sensing of the planet's surface and as a communications platform. It would be cheaper to operate and easier to get into place than a satellite.

If it works, it will "be the equivalent of an 11-mile-high tower in the sky," said Bob Curtin, of AeroVironment Design Development Center.