ROBOT SPY PLANE CRASHES IN TEST.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Daily News Staff Writer

An unmanned spy plane undergoing Air Force tests crashed Monday morning on a rugged China Lake Naval Weapons Center test range.

The Global Hawk - an oddly shaped craft powered by a jet engine and piloted by its own computers - had taken off from Edwards Air Force Base about 20 minutes earlier on a test of its electronics navigation gear.

``We don't have any more information,'' said Edwards spokeswoman Lt. Col. Vicki Stein. ``Teams are coming in to investigate.''

The plane crashed at 10:14 a.m. south of Searles Lake on the naval base's Echo Test Range, about 50 miles from Edwards.

The crash caused no injuries or damage on the ground, and the cause was not known, Edwards officials said Monday.

The plane that crashed was developed by Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical in San Diego.

In January, the Global Hawk won out in a budget battle over the more sophisticated, but more expensive, DarkStar built in Palmdale by Lockheed Martin Skunk Works. The first of the DarkStar aircraft, also unmanned, had crashed in 1996 at Edwards.

A congressional audit report estimated the price for each Global Hawk at $13.7 million compared with $14.8 million for DarkStar.

Although it is not stealthy like DarkStar, Global Hawk is designed to range as far as 15,500 miles at heights of 65,000 feet and can fly as long as 40 hours, sending images of enemy forces to battlefield commanders.

During a typical mission, the aircraft could fly 3,000 miles, then loiter at 65,000 feet for 24 hours.

Shorter than an F-16 fighter but with the wingspan of a 737 jetliner, the Global Hawk carries radar that can look through clouds to watch tanks or other targets moving in the ground, and camera and infrared sensors that can watch an area the size of Illinois, officials said.