Helios Aircraft Test Flights Are Scheduled

A 247-foot experimental flying wing developed by Monrovia-based AeroVironment Inc. and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is scheduled to make the first of several flights this week in the latest attempt to reach a record altitude of 100,000 feet.

The unmanned Helios aircraft--an ultralight plane covered in thin plastic film and weighing about 1,600 pounds--will attempt to reach the record height using power generated from the sun. The plane last flew in 1999, when it completed a series of flights in the Mojave Desert using battery power.

NASA engineers hope to conduct a functional test flight July 5 taking the plane to about 70,000 feet above the Hawaiian Islands. Two weeks later, the aircraft will attempt to set a record for a sustained flight at 100,000 feet.

Scientists envision using such aircraft, which would be able to hover at high altitudes for months at a time, as replacements for space-based satellites.