An unpiloted, solar-powered aircraft set two new world altitude records Monday as it soared to 29.4 kilometers (96,500 feet), US space officials said.
The record for propeller-driven aircraft was set at 2:04 pm (0004 GMT Tuesday) when the wing-shaped plane dubbed Helios reached the altitude of 24.4 kilometers (80,201 feet), beating the record set in 1998 by the aircraft Pathfinder Plus -- a smaller version of Helios, said Jenny Baer-Reidhart, spokeswoman for NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center.
Forty minutes later, Helios broke another altitude record established by a SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance jet in 1966 as it soared to 25.9 kilometers (85,068 feet).
At 4:09 pm, Helios reached 29.4 kilometers (96,500 feet), the spokeswoman said. The temperature at that altitude was -40 degrees Celsius (-41 degrees Fahrenheit).
"The aircraft is in the process of descending," she said, adding that the record had yet to be made official.
The flight was expected to last 14 to 16 hours, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.
Helios, which scientists believe could one day replace some satellites, took off from a missile base on the Hawaiian island of Kauai at 8:49 am and climbed at a rate of 60.1 meters (200 feet) per minute.
Developed by the Monrovia, California-based firm AeroVironment, the flying wing features 14 propellers solar-powered by motors that consume about as much energy as a standard hair dryer. It uses battery power at night.
With a wingspan of some 82 meters (270 feet), Helios is wider than a Boeing 747 or a C-5 military transport aircraft but not nearly as fast. It takes off at the speed of a bicycle and travels at a cruising speed of 30 to 50 kilometers (18 to 30 miles) per hour.
Made of carbon fibre and graphite, Helios is a prototype of an aircraft scientists plan to use as a "flying satellite," capable of remaining aloft for months at a time and fly anywhere a mission requires.
NASA said Helios could be used as a telecommunications or scientific satellite.
From construction to launch, a standard satellite costs between 10 and 30 million dollars, while Helios can be put in flight for only one million dollars.
The US space agency is also interested in the Helios program for future space missions.
By studying the aerodynamic flight of Helios at an altitude of 27.7 kilometers (91,000 feet), where the density of the atmosphere is only one percent of what it is at sea level, scientists hope one day to release a similar aircraft over Mars, where atmospheric density is equally thin -- BARKING SANDS, Hawaii (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
