EG-0019-01
The Centurion solar-powered aircraft was one of an on-going series of vehicles designed for ultra-long-duration flight at high altitudes. The original vehicle was built by AeroVironment, Inc., in 1983 in a classified program called HALSOL for High Altitude Solar. After tests were completed, HALSOL was put into storage for a decade. In 1993, the vehicle was modified, becoming the Pathfinder. Five years later, another modification yielded Pathfinder Plus, with a wingspan increased from 98 to 121 feet.
A subsequent vehicle in the series was the Centurion with a 206-foot wingspan, powered by 14 electric motors, compared to 6 on one version of Pathfinder and 8 on Pathfinder-Plus. The Centurion first flew in 1998. As with the HALSOL/Pathfinder/Pathfinder-Plus vehicles, the Centurion was further modified with the addition of a 41-foot wing extension and a fifth landing-gear pod. With a wingspan of 247 feet, the renamed “Helios Prototype” had 2 1/2 times the wingspan of the original HALSOL/Pathfinder.