Title: Helios 100K / NASA – AeroVironment – PMRF
Designer(s): AeroVironment guys had the lead; John Hicks and John Del Frate were also involved.
Year it was designed: 2001
Explanation or story behind the patch: This patch commemorated the altitude record flight set by the Helios on August 13th and 14th in 2001. The flight took place in the Navy’s airspace just off the Hawaiian Islands of Kauai and Niihau. The team took off and landed from the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) aka Barking Sands. The 100K represented the target altitude that the aircraft had been designed to reach. They fell a bit short of that; they reached 96,863 feet and flew level for over 45 minutes at 96,000ft. A record for non-rocket propelled aircraft; this is still holding. The sun was their power source as this was a solar powered aircraft symbolized by the blue and black stripes on the upper surface of the wing that was covered with enough solar cells to produce over 30KW of power. Total flight time was 16 hours and 54 minutes.
For more information on the Helios unmanned aircraft, click https://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS-068-DFRC.html