BATTERY-OPERATED CRAFT AIMS FOR STRATOSPHERE.

Byline: Associated Press

A 247-foot unmanned flying wing driven by eight battery-powered propellers climbed 400 feet into the sky on a flight to test technology intended to allow it to soar eventually to 100,000 feet or about 19 miles high.

The robotic Helios, radio-controlled by a pilot on the ground, lifted off at 7:27 a.m. from Rogers Dry Lake, NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center spokesman Alan Brown said.

The craft reached a maximum altitude of 400 feet and maximum speed of 28 mph, landed and took off again, then completed the last of its six development test flights at 9:15 a.m., he said.

``We met all the objectives that we set out to meet and then some, and we've got a lot of data we can look at for a long time,'' said John Del Frate, project manager of solar-powered aircraft under an $8 million research program.

It was the final flight in the initial development test series for the prototype of the Helios solar-powered wing, which is designed to fly four or more days with a cargo of atmospheric research or telecommunications relay equipment.

For the flight Wednesday, two of the 14 Helios prototype motors were removed from the giant wing and four motors had their two-blade propellers removed. About 400 pounds of lead bricks weighing 26 pounds each were added to increase weight for simulation purposes, Brown said.

Solar panels will be added to the wing before the next flight, scheduled in 2001 in Hawaii. The next phase of testing will take the wing to 100,000 feet.