Record-Setting Solar Plane Breaks Apart
Posted on: Friday, 27 June 2003, 06:00 CDT
By B.J. REYES
HONOLULU (AP) -- An unmanned plane that set an altitude record two years ago broke apart during a test flight Thursday and crashed into the Pacific Ocean, NASA officials said.
The remotely piloted, one-of-a-kind Helios Prototype crashed off Kauai within the testing area of the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said in a news release.
The $15 million, solar-electric, propeller-driven Helios had a wingspan of 247 feet and looked more like a flying wing than a conventional plane.
It reached an altitude of 96,500 feet during a 2001 flight from Barking Sands. The altitude, about 18 miles, was considered by NASA to be a record for a nonrocket-powered winged aircraft.
Helios crashed about a half-hour into Thursday's flight, which was intended to test its fuel cell system.
"We were flying at about the 8,000-foot altitude west of Kauai over the ocean and the aircraft simply broke up," said Alan Brown, a spokesman for NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif.
The cause of the crash is unknown, Brown said. NASA is forming an accident investigation team.
Helios had been flying under the guidance of ground-based mission controllers for AeroVironment Inc. of Monrovia, Calif., the plane's builder and operator. It was one of several remotely piloted aircraft whose technological development NASA has sponsored.
The prototype, powered by solar cells during the day and by fuel cells at night, was designed to fly at altitudes of up to 100,000 feet. It was designed for atmospheric science and imaging missions as well as telecommunications relay work.
Brown said NASA intends to develop another Helios aircraft, calling it "technology worth pursuing."
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