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Meeting	ACGS Committee Meeting 100 - Cocoa Beach - October 2007
Agenda Location	7 SUBCOMMITTEE A – AERONAUTIC AND SURFACE VEHICLES 7.2 Helios Mishap
Title	Helios Mishap
Presenter	John H. Del Frate
Affiliation	NASA DFRC
Available Downloads*	presentation
	Downloads are available to members who are logged in and either Active* or attended this meeting.
Abstract	Authors: Thomas E. Noll NASA Langley Research Center John M. Brown National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marla E. Perez-Davis NASA Glenn Research Center Stephen D. Ishmael NASA Dryden Flight Research Center Geary C. Tiffany NASA Ames Research Center Matthew Gaier NASA Headquarters Abstract: On 26 June 2003, the NASA/AeroVironment Helios Prototype took off from the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) located on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. At about 30 minutes into the flight, the aircraft encountered turbulence and morphed into an unexpected, persistent, high dihedral configuration. The result was that the aircraft impacted the ocean and was destroyed. A mishap investigation committee was immediately assembled and the results of this committee’s findings and deliberations are presented in this briefing. The briefing includes a description of the aircraft background, the mishap, analysis of the committee findings, root causes and recommendations. [Note: a detailed written report of the mishap can be found at: http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/64317main_helios.pdf].