NASA WILL REATTEMPT HELIOS FLIGHT WINDS STOPPED FRIDAY EFFORT.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE- Researchers will try today to test fly the Helios solar-powered flying wing after high winds forced the mission to be canceled Friday. Helios' first checkout flight from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility Located in the State of Hawaii on the western shores of Kauai, the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) at Barking Sands (IATA: BKH, ICAO: PHBK) is the world's largest instrumented, multi-dimensional testing and training missile range. on Kauai, Hawaii, was postponed Friday because of 65- to 78-knot winds at 40,000 to 50,000 feet. ``High-altitude winds could have blown Helios off the test range,'' said NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. spokesman Alan Brown
The flight will precede an attempt at setting a record by flying Helios to an altitude of 100,000 feet. Depending on the results, the first attempt to sustain flight at 100,000 feet is expected no earlier than mid-August, Brown said. Helios' flight will test its capabilities and operation at altitudes up to 75,000 to 80,000 feet. The project has two objectives: to reach 100,000 feet and to demonstrate nonstop flying for at least four days above 50,000 feet. Reaching 100,000 feet would shatter the existing altitude record for a propeller-driven airplane by more than 20,000 feet. The long-duration flight is scheduled for 2003. The flight testing is conducted under NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology program, which is developing technologies for high-altitude aircraft that can fly for days at a time. Such aircraft could be an inexpensive means to study Earth, the atmosphere, and natural and man-made climatic changes. NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center The Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC), located inside Edwards Air Force Base, is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA. On March 26, 1976 it was named in honor of the late Hugh L. at Edwards oversees the ERAST ERAST Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (NASA) program and test flew earlier versions of the airplane. The 12-foot-long Helios has a 247-foot wingspan and a cruising speed cruising speed n → velocidad f de crucero cruising speed n → vitesse f de croisière cruising speed cruise n from 19 to 25 mph. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion