BARKING SANDS – There was anticipation, then exhilaration, then more anticipation, then high spirits when the Helios Prototype solar-powered aircraft finally lifted off from Pacific Missile Range Facility here Saturday. The range of emotions coincided with seeing the pilotless, 247-foot-wide
BARKING SANDS – There was anticipation, then exhilaration, then more anticipation, then high spirits when the Helios Prototype solar-powered aircraft finally lifted off from Pacific Missile Range Facility here Saturday.
The range of emotions coincided with seeing the pilotless, 247-foot-wide aircraft head down the taxiway, lift off the ground, touch down briefly, then finally lift off and stay airborne on its first functional check flight.
Waiting for the clouds to move out of the way of the sun, the flight crew had to delay the scheduled 7:50 a.m. flight time to 8:11, making the roughly 250 spectators in attendance turn their attention away from the taxiway and look toward the mountains to try to gauge how long the clouds would obscure the sun that provides the fuel for the solar-powered Helios.
The crowd yesterday was smaller than the 450-person turnout for last Saturday’s aborted flight attempt, but just as excited. There were cameras with telephoto lenses, video cameras and binoculars. Many people also carried radios to listen to the communications of the flight crew.
Not expected back over PMRF until sometime between 10 p.m. and midnight last night, the Helios on this flight was scheduled to climb skyward at increments between 5,000 and 10,000 feet at a time, then level off long enough for ground crews to assess how it was holding up and responding before moving upward again.
The taxiway that served as its runway provided a front-and-center view for spectators. The Helios is too wide to fit on any of the PMRF runways. Luckily, there is a 250-foot-wide taxiway.
After a nearly silent liftoff, the craft, as designed, bowed in the center, with its wing tips riding higher than the center.
During portions of the takeoff, observers noticed that not all of the 13 propellors that provide the Helios its lift were all operating at once. When it finally got airborne, though, all 13 were working.
When Helios got over the ocean between Kaua’i and Ni’ihau, the goal was to gain altitude as quickly as possible. Pilots on the ground were positioning the craft so its solar panels would face the sun and absorb as much of the sun’s energy as possible to make the ascent quick and efficient, explained John Hicks, project manager for the NASA ERAST (Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology) program.
While many around him were agog at the history they had just witnessed, it was business as usual for Hicks, a 32-year aviation veteran who will retire at year’s end.
The Helios project is his “last hurrah,” he said.
Yesterday’s flight was the craft’s first on Kaua’i. That significance wasn’t lost on the spectators.
“It was an exciting takeoff,” said Liz Hahn of Waimea. “I didn’t expect it to be that exciting,” with the dips and stalls, she said.
She was also happy to see her son’s science teacher, Melinda Madison of Waimea Canyon School, there to take in the spectacle and ready to teach the relevance of the Helios flight to young minds.
Several other teachers were there, too, some with video cameras, to make a learning tool out of the experience.
Getting even more excited after learning that the first commercial applications of the Helios will be improving telecommunications, Hahn reflected on how far technology has progressed.
Someone standing near her during the liftoff said the width of the Helios is nearly the same distance that the Wright brothers flew during the first manned engine-powered aircraft flight nearly a century ago. Actually, the first flight, with Wilbur Wright at the controls, was around 120 feet. The second was 200, and the third flight was over 800 feet.
Donna Lee of Waimea, who came to the Navy base every day there was a scheduled flight of the Helios (four times at 6 a.m. when the base gates opened to the public), never went home disappointed, even when the craft didn’t fly.
“It was part of the experience, to support those who are putting so much time and effort into it,” said Lee, adding that she became even more fascinated with the process as she learned about the planned applications of the aircraft in studying ocean reef systems and crops, among other things.
It’s not “just another bucket to pour money into,” she said.
Tom Kloss of Kalaheo, sporting a solar-powered cooling fan on the hat he was wearing, works at the base as a system manager for a Hewlett-Packard 3000 computer. He said he appreciates PMRF and NASA participating in “livingry” instead of weaponry.
Kloss said he is looking forward to the time when fuel-cell technology and battery storage systems aboard the Helios will allow it to stay aloft, possibly permanently, and replace some satellites in the process.
Kloss won’t have to wait too long. Hicks said in the summer of 2003, the Helios crew will be back in an attempt to keep the Helios (or a future generation of a similar airplane) aloft for 96 hours straight.
That would be accomplished by using the sun’s energy to fly the plane during daylight hours, and storing surplus energy in onboard battery systems to power the plane after the sun goes down. Fuel-cell technology will allow hydrogen to be used as a fuel, with water the main product of the fuel-burning process.
Hawai’i has the highest UV (ultraviolet light) index in the United States, making it the perfect place to attempt solar-powered flight, Kloss noted.
Incidentally, the clouds obscuring the sun that delayed the launch of the Helios also delayed the powering up of his hat fan.
Mike Dyer and Jeff Goodman drove from Kilauea to watch history Saturday morning.
“It’s just an unusual scientific event,” Dyer said of the reason he wanted to be present.
His friend, Goodman, got interested in NASA projects initially through his sons. Jason Goodman, a Kapa’a High School graduate, recently received his doctorate in Earth atmosphere and planetary sciences from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The younger Goodman is now in Chicago, researching papers on the Mars atmosphere, on which the Helios will eventually attempt to gather data, as well.
The elder Goodman had his monopod and telephoto camera positioned perfectly to be able to capture images of Helios he’ll forward to his son.
In the event that Helios had computer or mechanical trouble and had to make an emergency landing, one of the emergency landing sites is Ni’ihau, where residents have been trained to assist as necessary, Hicks said.
After yesterday’s flight, it will be two to three weeks before the next flight is scheduled. And that could be the attempt to ascend to and maintain an altitude of 100,000 feet, or nearly 19 miles above the Earth.
That would be a record for an unmanned aircraft. And since Helios has never been higher than 80,000 feet (yesterday’s flight was scheduled to go as high as 70,000), Hicks said technicians don’t know with certainty how the craft will act or react at that altitude.
If the 100,000-foot flight doesn’t happen within two to three weeks, Hicks said it will be scheduled for a week later, making an August attempt at the record altitude a probability.
Hicks answered questions from spectators about the flight until only base security personnel remained. Then, he took his position in “the alpha control room,” tracking the movements of the Helios while ground-based pilots moved the craft via remote control.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
