The propellers are made from advanced composite materials and a laminar-flow design for efficiency at high altitudes. (1.5 kW) each, and drive lightweight two-blade propellers of 79-inch diameter. The Helios Prototype is powered by 14 brushless direct-current electric motors mounted across the wing's entire span. Two wheels on each pod make up the fixed landing gearrugged mountain bike wheels on the rear and The five aerodynamically shaped pods are made mostly of the same materials as the wing itself, with the exception of the transparent wing covering. An underwing pod is attached at each panel joint to carry the landing gear, the battery power system, flight control computers, and data instrumentation. The all-wing aircraft is assembled in six sections, each about 41 feet long. when flying at a gross weight of 1,600 lb. ft., which gives the craft a maximum wing loading of only 0.81 lb./sq. Tips of the trailing edge helps prevent wingtip stalls during the slow landings and turns. The outer panels have a built-in 10-degree dihedral (upsweep) to give the aircraft more lateral stability. The wing thickness is the same from tip to tip, 11.5 inches or 12 percent of the chord, and it has no taper or sweep. The 247-foot wingspan gives the Helios Prototype an aspect ratio of almost 31 to 1. The Helios Prototype shares the same eight-foot wing chord (distance from leading to trailing edge) as its Pathfinder and Centurion predecessors. Shaped styrofoam is used for the wing's leading edge and a durable clear plastic film covers the entire wing. The wing ribs are also made of epoxy and carbon fiber. The spar, which is thicker on the top and bottom to absorb the constant bending motions that occur during flight, is also wrapped with Nomex® and Kevlar for additional strength. The main tubular wing spar is made of carbon fiber. The electrically powered Helios is constructed mostly of composite materials such as carbon fiber, graphite epoxy, Kevlar®, styrofoam, and a thin, transparent Air Force C-5 military transport (222 feet) or the Boeing 747 commercial jetliner (195 or 215 feet, depending on the model), the two largest operational aircraft in the United States. The Helios Prototype is an ultra-lightweight flying wing aircraft with a wingspan of 247 feet, longer than the wingspans of the U.S. Role as a forerunner of the eventual Helios production aircraft, which will be designed to fly continuously for up to six months at a time on science and commercial missions. It was renamed the Helios Prototype to reflect its It is an enlarged version of the Centurion flying wing, flown at Dryden in late 1998 to verify the handling qualities and performance of a lightweight all-wing aircraft of more than 200-foot wingspan. Out storm tracking studies, atmospheric sampling, spectral imaging for agricultural and natural resources monitoring, pipeline monitoring and also serve as relay platforms for telecommunications systems.ĭeveloped by AeroVironment, Inc., of Monrovia, California, with the assistance of NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, the Helios Prototype is one of several remotely piloted aircraft that have been involved in NASA's ERAST project. Flying autonomously with mission-oriented payloads and instrumentation, these ultra-high flyers could carry Through ERAST, many new propulsion, materials, control, instrumentation, and sensor technologies are being pioneered which could enable the development of a fleet of high-flying uninhabited aircraft that could conduct a wide variety of Earth and atmospheric science missions. The operational and technical ability to reach these two goals is critical for NASA's ERAST project. The aircraft is undergoing modifications and upgrades to enable it to accomplish the flight endurance milestone, presently planned for late summer, 2003. In 2001, the Helios Prototype achieved the first of the two goals by reaching an unofficial world-record altitude of 96,863 feet and sustaining flight above 96,000 feet for more than 40 minutes during a test flight near Hawaii. The two primary goals of the Helios Prototype development are to demonstrate sustained flight at an altitude near 100,000 feet and flying non-stop for at least 24 hours, including at least 14 hours above 50,000 feet. The Helios Prototype is a remotely piloted flying wing aircraft developed under NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) project. Helios Prototype: The forerunner of 21st century solar-powered "atmospheric satellites" Project Summary
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