Solar-powered aircraft tries launch tomorrow

Associated Press

BARKING SANDS, Kaua'i — Deteriorating weather conditions over Kaua'i yesterday forced the postponement of a demonstration of endurance by a remote-controlled, solar-powered aircraft.

The decision to scrub the launch from the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility was made by NASA and AeroVironment Inc., the manufacturer and operator of the Helios prototype, said NASA spokesman Alan Brown.

The launch was rescheduled for tomorrow morning, he said.

The purpose of the flight is to demonstrate the ability of an experimental fuel-cell system to power the 246-foot-long, solar-powered flying wing at night, Brown said.

Plans call for the aircraft, which is driven by 14 propellers turned by small 2-horsepower electric motors, to ascend to 50,000 feet. After the aircraft levels off, the fuel-cell system is to be run for several hours. Around 9 p.m., Helios will begin a slow descent, landing at the missile range facility about 4 a.m. Sunday.

In 2001, the aircraft set an altitude record for a non-rocket powered aircraft of 96,500 feet .

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 during development of the project in 2001.