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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, June 10, 2003

Flying wing's mission cut short

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer

The flying wing Helios flew from sea level to 50,000 feet entirely under solar power Saturday but was unable to activate an on-board fuel cell system that engineers had hoped to use to keep it aloft after dark.

The unmanned aircraft left West Kaua'i's Pacific Missile Range Facility runway at 8:43 a.m. Saturday and glided back to the same runway shortly after midnight Sunday morning, landing without incident.

The hydrogen fuel cell system experienced "some anomalies" and was not brought on line, according to the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. Instead, the aircraft flew on lithium batteries after dark. NASA Dryden spokesman Alan Brown said it was not yet clear yesterday exactly what the problem was.

Helios has flown before on solar power, proving that it can operate on a sustained basis on the power of the sun. But for multi-day flights, it needs to be able to fly at night as well. The fuel cell system is new, and while it is designed around an automotive fuel cell system from General Motors and Hydrogenics Corp., its features to allow high-altitude use had not been tested at altitude. Both temperature and pressure are much lower there than at ground level.

"It's a shakedown flight. That's what we're here for," said John Del Frate, NASA Helios project manager.

Helios is scheduled to fly again next month.