LIHUE, Hawaii (Reuters) - Some 200 onlookers cheered on Saturday when the Helios, NASA's $15 million solar-powered aircraft that is expected to shatter altitude records, began its first flight over Hawaii.
Powered by 62,000 solar cells, the unmanned, remote-controlled craft lifted off at 8:05 a.m. HST (1:05 p.m. EDT) at the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
Traveling down the runway at about 20 mph, it briefly touched down before immediately taking off again, its 247-foot-long flexible wings bending upward as it rose.
The Helios is set to travel several hundred nautical miles Saturday, spending most of its time over the Pacific Ocean to reduce the possibility of a crash in a populated area.
The experimental aircraft, which resembles a single, boomerang-shaped translucent wing, will perform maneuvers at 10,000-foot intervals during its 14- to 16-hour flight, project manager John Hicks said.
It likely will reach an altitude of 70,000 feet, although it is believed capable of soaring to 100,000 feet, some 20,000 feet higher than the current altitude record for a propeller-drive airplane set by its project predecessor, Pathfinder Plus, in 1998.
AeroVironment Inc., which has contracted with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop the craft, had planned to fly the Helios on July 5.
But gusty high-altitude winds and a computer glitch pushed back the date.
Island conditions better
The Helios has flown once before, in 1999 at Edwards Air Force Base in California, when it reached an altitude of just 1,000 feet operating on battery power only.
The craft was then shipped to Kauai, where scientists say the sun and wind conditions are more favorable, and outfitted with individual solar cells that cover 2,000 square feet of surface.
The solar cells will generate about 40 kilowatts of power -- which is about the amount used each day by four to six homes -- to drive the craft's 14 propellers. The Helios requires just 10 kilowatts to operate.
When fuel cells are installed by summer of 2003, giving the craft the ability to store the excess solar power for use at night, the Helios will be able to stay aloft for months at a time, Hicks said.
The Helios can be brought down easily for routine maintenance and payload changes because it does not travel in orbit like a satellite. It also can remain in one spot over the Earth's surface for an extended period of time.
These capabilities will allow the Helios to function as a kind of "poor man's satellite,'' providing telecommunications and digital television service in remote regions, Hicks said. AeroVironment is interested in this type of commercial application.
Hicks said the government plans to use the Helios for a variety of Earth science research programs such as remote-sensing and imaging of the atmosphere and water to study climate change and ozone depletion.
The craft also can be used to monitor the health of fisheries and forest resources, track hurricanes, tornadoes and volcanic eruptions, and determine the readiness of crops for harvest, Hicks said.
The military may use the Helios for surveillance because it is silent and cannot be detected by radar, he said. At maximum altitude, it can fly at about 200 mph.
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