High above the Oregon coast yesterday, a futuristic class of Mars exploration technology took wing.

The MarsFlyer -- a one-half scale prototype of a NASA craft that one day may zip across Martian skies -- made the first in a series of shakeout sojourns. The craft is dubbed the Eagle.

Dropped from a high-altitude balloon, the craft successfully unfurled its wings and tail, then demonstrated aerodynamic performance. MarsFlyer is an experimental vehicle, a byproduct of government, industry and university talent.

The high-flying aircraft was designed and manufactured by Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation in Manassas, Virginia. These same folks are pioneering a number of unmanned aerial platforms, for both commercial and military uses.

Taking off from an airport in Tillamook, Oregon on Sept. 19, a high-altitude balloon toted the MarsFlyer up to nearly 19 miles altitude (30 kilometers). The airplane's wings and tail were neatly tucked away, folded into position as if stuffed into an aeroshell in transit to Mars.

Once let loose from the balloon -- and while a nail-biting ground crew watched their monitors -- the MarsFlyer unfolded itself, then completed a 90-minute, pre-programmed flight path using built-in smarts.

Swooping down from the extreme height and through the thin air, the craft showed its handling abilities in Mars-like atmospheric conditions. Without landing gear, the plane came to a safe skid on the grass at the same airport from which it was launched.

Aurora project manager for the MarsFlyer, Jean-Charles Ledé, said that a preliminary analysis of the flight data shows the deployment sequence went flawlessly. The flight was smooth and stable, matching preflight predictions.

"The flight could not have gone better," Ledé said. "The performance matched our models very well," he explained in a press statement.

"It's a tremendous day," said Robert Braun, project manager for the plane at the NASA Langley Research Center.

"I don't think this has been done before," Braun told SPACE.com "This is a real first. It really shows how an airplane system can be deployed and fly in a tenuous atmosphere like the one at Mars."

Langley is very involved in making powered airplane flight on another planet a reality, to carry out science exploration, Braun told SPACE.com. The aircraft design that was flight tested yesterday, he added, has been proposed as a NASA Scout mission. The Scout program involves econo-class spacecraft being sent to Mars to enhance the space agency's study of the red planet.

"Langley is really in this for the long run. We're not in this for just one proposal," Braun said. "In my mind, unmanned powered airplanes have a role to play in exploring Mars, Venus, Titan, even conducting some rather unique Earth science from high-altitude."

The Eagle was unpowered in yesterday's test. The actual Mars craft would utilize a hydrazine-powered rocket engine to scoot through Martian skies.

"And rockets are the thrust you can trust, basically," Braun said. "Mars is an obvious target of opportunity for this technology. What we demonstrated is that this system can perform as expected in Mars-like conditions."

The NASA Langley team is planning more analysis and testing in 2003, including a second high-altitude test to coincide with the 100^th anniversary of the Wright brothers' historic flight on December 17. Flight on Mars could come as early as 2008.

James Head, professor of geological sciences at Brown University, is one of several scientists guiding the technology development of the plane. The Mars powered vehicle is a unique platform that permits the examination of the Martian surface and lower atmosphere of Mars at a scale and vantage point previously unavailable, he said.

For example, detailed, low-altitude measurements of the enigmatic magnetic anomalies discovered by Mars Global Surveyor could be made. "It fills in a major gap in our remote sensing capabilities," Head told SPACE.com.

This and other important scientific questions raised by previous missions can be attacked by an airborne craft, Head said. "The successful test flight of the Eagle is a very important step. Believe me, when I heard that 'The Eagle has landed!' it brought a surge of adrenaline like I haven't felt since Apollo 11."

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