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Fuel Cell Airplane's Shakedown Flight

9 June 2003

NOTE TO EDITORS: Fuel Cell Airplane's Shakedown Flight Identifies 
Items Requiring Work Before Extended Duration Mission in July

Researchers from NASA and Aerovironment, Inc., brought the remotely 
piloted Helios electrically powered flying wing back to land 15 hours 
after takeoff -- about three hours earlier than planned -- after 
recording some anomalies with the aircraft's revolutionary fuel cell 
system.  This was to have been Helios' first flight using fuel cell 
technology after taking off under solar cell power, but the fuel cell 
was not brought on line, said NASA Helios project manager John Del 
Frate from the Dryden Flight Reserarch Center, Edwards, Calif.  The 
flight took off at 8:43 a.m. June 7 from the U.S. Navy's Pacific 
Missile Range Facility on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

Del Frate said the Helios team was prepared for surprises with this 
first flight with the fuel cell on board Helios.  "It's a shakedown 
flight," he said.  "That's what we're here for." Del Frate likened 
this first flight to using a huge altitude chamber to check the fuel 
cell under extremes of low temperatures and low atmospheric pressure 
up to about 50,000 feet.  "This is exactly the kind of thing we were 
expecting to find out," he said.  He said the Helios team will 
inspect the aircraft and digest data from the flight before making 
another takeoff, which might come before month's end.  He said until 
the team has a chance to go over all the data and look closely at 
Helios, he could not characterize what precluded operation of the 
fuel cell.

Ultimately, remotely piloted aircraft using a combination of fuel 
cells and solar cells may be able to stay aloft for weeks at a time, 
serving as environmental monitoring vehicles or telecommunications 
relays.

More information about Helios' planned flights for 2003 is available 
online in news releases from the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center's 
Web site.  Photos of Helios' June 7 takeoff are posted on the NASA 
Dryden Web site Gallery section.  (www.dfrc.nasa.gov)

The NASA Dryden Public Affairs Office opens at 7:30 a.m. Pacific 
Daylight Time Monday; media query messages may be left today for Alan 
Brown at (661) 276-2665, or Fred Johnsen at (661) 276-2998.

NASA Dryden Flight Research Center
Public Affairs Office
Edwards, CA 93523
(661) 276-3449
FAX (661) 276-3566

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