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NASA News
National Aeronautics and
Space Administration
Dryden Flight Research Center
P.O. Box 273
Edwards, California 93523
Phone   (661) 276-3449
FAX (661) 276-3566 
                        __
June 9, 2003

Alan Brown
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center
(661) 276-2665
alan.brown{at}dfrc.nasa.gov

RELEASE: 03-26

ALTAIR HIGH-ALTITUDE, LONG-ENDURANCE UAV MAKES FIRST FLIGHT

A milestone in the development of high-altitude, long-endurance 
remotely operated aircraft occurred Monday, June 9 with the first 
flight of NASA's Altair, the first unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to 
feature triple-redundant flight systems and avionics for increased 
reliability.

The slender-wing aircraft lifted off the runway at General Atomics 
Aeronautical Systems' flight test facility at El Mirage, Calif., at 
8:36 a.m. for a checkout flight that evaluated the new aircraft's 
basic airworthiness and flight controls. The rear-engine Altair 
glided to a landing on the remote desert runway 24 minutes later. The 
entire flight was conducted at low altitude within a comparatively 
short range of the El Mirage airstrip.

"This is what we've been waiting for," said Glenn Hamilton, Altair 
project manager at NASA Dryden, after witnessing the first flight. 
"Now we can move forward with getting UAV's into the national 
airspace and conducting research."

Hamilton's comments were echoed by Thomas J. Cassidy, president and 
chief executive officer of San Diego-based General Atomics 
Aeronautical Systems, Inc.

"Altair's first flight today is a culmination of 10 years of 
experience in building reliable unmanned aircraft based on a common 
design philosophy," Cassidy added. "I am very proud of our design, 
manufacturing and flight-readiness teams for their dedication to a 
high performance level of excellence."

Built to performance specifications established by NASA's Earth 
Science Enterprise, Altair is an extended-wing version of the MQ-9 
Predator B military UAV being developed under a partnership with 
GA-ASI. Altair is one of several UAVs designed for civil applications 
that have been developed or matured under the Environmental Research 
Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program at NASA's Dryden 
Flight Research Center at Edwards, Calif. 

After its initial airworthiness test flights, Altair will serve as 
the avionics test aircraft for the production version of the MQ-9 
before being transferred to NASA.

At NASA Dryden, the one-of-a-kind Altair will first be used to 
evaluate various new control, communications and collision-avoidance 
technologies that are critical to enabling UAVs to fly safely in 
national airspace with manned aircraft. Later, NASA will be able to 
use the Altair for a variety of environmental science missions, such 
as volcanic observation, forest fire monitoring and atmospheric 
sampling - missions that are often too dangerous, difficult or too 
lenghy for manned aircraft to perform. UAVs are uniquely positioned 
to perform long missions that have repetitive routines.

Altair is expected to be the first UAV able to meet Federal Aviation 
Administration requirements to operate from conventional airports 
with piloted aircraft in the national airspace. In addition to 
triple-redundant avionics, Altair is configured with a 
fault-tolerant, dual-architecture flight control system and will be 
equipped with an automated collision-avoidance system as well as an 
air traffic control voice relay that will allow air-traffic 
controllers to talk to the ground-based Altair pilots through the 
aircraft. Command and control of the Altair as well as research data 
gathered by Altair will be transmitted through an "over the horizon" 
satellite link. That link will also allow scientists to receive 
research information as soon as the Altair obtains it.

Altair has been designed to fly continuously for up to 32 hours. It 
can reach a maximum altitude of about 52,000 feet (10 miles), and 
will have a maximum range of about 4,200 miles.   It can carry up to 
750 pounds of sensors, radar, communications and imaging equipment in 
its forward fuselage.  The Altair is 34 feet long, and has a wingspan 
of 86 feet, 22 feet longer than the Predator B's 64-foot wingspan. 
It is powered by a 700 horsepower rear-mounted Honeywell TPE-331-10T 
turboprop engine driving a three-blade controllable-pitch propeller.

NASA and GA-ASI are jointly funding development of the Altair and 
Predator B prototypes under the ERAST program. GA-ASI also built the 
Altair's predecessor, the Altus 2, for NASA under ERAST.

- NASA -

NOTE TO EDITORS:

Still photos and video footage are available to support this release. 
Photos are available on the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center 
internet website at:
http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/Altair_PredatorB/HTML/
EC03-0154-3.html
For photo prints or video dubs, please call (661) 276-2665.

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