Voyage into Unknown Skies

ometime this summer, a plane called Perseus will sweep over the Mojave desert at the uninspiring speed of 30 miles per hour. The lanky, long-winged craft will rise a few hundred feet above the ground, and perhaps even top 1,000 feet hardly a recordbreaking altitude. But beyond that modest maiden voyage, Perseus' designers have set their sights on truly ambitious missions into some of the most dangerous parts of the atmosphere. The winged robot, a hodgepodge of borrowed technology and parts, is designed to fly higher than any other nonmilitary airplane, reaching altitudes of more than 25 kilometers (82,000 feet). Its vertical range and the absence of a pilot make Perseus ideal for carrying scientific instruments into the middle of the Antarctic ozone hole and other places where humans have never flown. Atmospheric researchers have no problem dreaming up ways to use such a unique and inexpensive machine. It has developed a very strong backing in the scientific community, says James Anderson of Harvard University, an atmospheric chemist who designed the instruments Perseus will carry on its first scientific mission. It's really an idea whose time has come. If Perseus succeeds, it may forever alter the way researchers probe the skies. John S. Langford, the aeronautical engineer who conceived the project, has drawn up plans for an entire fleet of these unmanned planes, some designed to fly for months on end and others that could reach altitudes of 35 km or higher.