THINGS TO COME : Clean, Green Flying Machine

Catherine Anderson and Bob Curtin swear it’s the future. But when their eight-foot-long, 100-foot-wide solar-powered plane is wheeled out of its hangar at Edwards Air Force Base, it looks more like a balsa wood model made by a 50-foot kid.

Don’t be fooled. Their low-power, high-tech idea could undermine the growing global satellite-launching business. The young engineers of Monrovia’s AeroVironment say that planes like the pilotless, radio-controlled Pathfinder can do most of the jobs a satellite does, but at a fraction of the cost. Development so far has cost a cheap-for-serious-science $2.5 million; funds have come from several government and private sources.

They hope to fly the plane in a test this summer at 65,000 feet. If it’s successful, AeroVironment, which also developed much of the technology for GM’s Impact electric car, plans to launch a bigger version--Helios, with a 200-foot wingspan.

“On Helios,” says Anderson, “there’ll be a large enough solar array soaking up sun-power during the day to fly the plane through the night.” And Curtin says its bigger payload would give it the potential to carry out satellite duties “without paying the $100 million a year a satellite typically costs to maintain in orbit.” Solar planes could do the same job for about $20 million, he says.

One added benefit: Pollution-free take-offs. Many satellites are placed in orbit by a space shuttle, which destroys more ozone in a single launch than the annual chlorofluorocarbon output of most individual industrial plants.