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NASA Appoints Team to Investigate Hawaii Crash (Helios)
Fox News ^
| June 28, 2003
| AP
Posted on 06/28/2003 7:23:48 PM PDT by e_engineer
Edited on 04/22/2004 12:36:42 AM PDT by Jim Robinson.
[history]
The Helios Prototype crashed Thursday near the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands about 30 minutes after taking off. The investigators will spend the next week on Kauai trying to figure out what went wrong.
The remotely piloted, $15 million aircraft was traveling at a speed of about 21 mph at 3,000 feet when it broke up and crashed, said Alan Brown, a spokesman for NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS: helios; nasa
NASA is not having good luck with flying things this year, but Helios never looked very airworthy IMHO.
To: e_engineer
To: e_engineer
It's fun playing around with gadgets like this. When I was a boy, my cousin and I made a step hydroplane boat out of brown paper and glue (marine epoxy), put a 25 HP outboard on the back, and whizzed up and down our local river. The stern was made of 3/4" plywood to clamp the engine onto, and there were two plywood stringers down the middle, but otherwise the rest of it was just layers of brown paper soaked in glue.
But fun as it is, it's not terribly practical. This whole Helios project is a politically motivated boondoggle.
3
posted on
06/28/2003 7:50:07 PM PDT
by
Cicero
(Marcus Tullius)
To: e_engineer
The investigators will spend the next week on Kauai trying to figure out what went wrong. Tough assignment.
4
posted on
06/28/2003 7:53:17 PM PDT
by
RightWhale
(gazing at shadows)
To: RightWhale
Yes. A week at Barking Sands = a week eating at Oki’s diner in Lihue.
Heck, they may not come back. I’m not sure I’d blame them.
To: Cicero
made a step hydroplane boat out of brown paper and glue (marine epoxy), put a 25 HP outboard on the back, and whizzed up and down our local river.Are you from Texas? LOL!
It's amazing what you can do with good design to build things out to the materials limit. Doesn't leave much margin, though. The Helios was likely near design limits. I wonder how much it cost?
/john
To: e_engineer
I wonder if the chase team contributed to it's demise...
7
posted on
06/28/2003 8:22:29 PM PDT
by
tubebender
(FReepin Awesome...)
To: e_engineer
If it weren't for NASA crash investigation teams, they'd have to lay off half their work force!
To: tubebender
I also wonder about tampering by the post-crash investigation crew, considering the location. (/joking)
If the chase team got video, RCA (root cause analysis) should be pretty easy.
/john
To: e_engineer
other than a totally bizarre looking exercise in engineering, was this supposed to be good for something?
10
posted on
06/28/2003 9:48:25 PM PDT
by
fnord
( Hyprocisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue)
To: fnord
was this supposed to be good for something?Staying aloft for days at a time at 15K+ meters with a reasonable payload is gold in the bank for some industries. Especially the military.
Say "broadband wireless internet". I knew you could. ;>)
/john
To: fnord; JRandomFreeper
If solar powered high altitude flight can be perfected, aircraft could replace satellites for lots of applications, as JRandomFreeper suggested.
This offers some huge advantages including lower cost than satellite launches, and the ability to return the craft for repairs.
I think the hardest part of making this work is staying aloft at night when there is no solar energy to propel the craft.
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