Posted on: Wednesday, August 22, 2001
Editorial
Helios project: more than science; a dream
If it wasn't enough that they managed to set a non-rocket-powered altitude record of 96,500 feet, the dreamers and scientists involved in the fascinating Helios project on Kaua'i now have an even more fantastic vision:
Rather than push for yet greater altitudes, the designers want to move on the goal of keeping this delicate bird aloft for extended periods of time. Eventually, it may become a low-cost high-return substitute for low-orbit satellites.
The long-term flight dream will require even greater feats of engineering and development of batteries that do not even exist today. But before getting too lost in dreams of what is to come, it's worth taking yet another look back at what has already been accomplished. We may be a bit blase about our accomplishments at home, but this editorial comment from a recent edition of the Los Angeles Times captures perfectly the romance and delight of this dramatic Island adventure:
"To anyone who has ever concentrated really hard, even in August, positioning the wings and tail just right and, tongue between teeth, launched a balsa airplane into the perfect frontyard breeze and watched it soar and dip and then inexplicably soar more, nearly to the street corner, the news that NASA has flown an unmanned elongated flying wing to a record altitude of 96,500 feet inspires awe.
"'Awesome' is applied to many things nowadays, including even teenage singers. However, not much inspires old-fashioned, genuine jaw-dropping awe. ...
"But remotely piloting a 247-foot wing made of coffee-cup plastic foam and driven at 23 miles an hour by 14 solar-powered propellers with the strength of hair dryers reignites that delicious, mouth-open awe that became uncool sometime before eighth grade. Sure, the 1,577-pound Helios aircraft has commercial possibilities; flying for months without landing, it could replace expensive satellites. And the military will doubtless divine some lethal mission for the fragile craft someday.
" But even if you can't lie down right now in soft grass and gaze into the blue sky, just think for a summer's moment about the doing of it — about imagining, designing and building a curvaceous wing that carries 62,000 solar panels and obeys engineers who dream. It lifts off a runway in Hawai'i and soars out over the Pacific up through wispy clouds hour after hour until it is more than 18 miles high, where the sky turns black.
"And then see whether, honestly, you don't feel like running into the kitchen and yelling: 'Wow! Did you see that?'"
