Pilotless Test Plane Blown Up After It Veers Off Course

A pilotless, $4.9-million airplane funded by NASA was blown apart at 19,000 feet on a test flight at Edwards Air Force Base on Tuesday when it went out of control, officials said, causing at least the third such loss in two years.

Fearing that the aircraft, dubbed Theseus, would veer out of the test area, ground-based operators destroyed it by remote control, said John Langford, president of Aurora Flight Systems, which built the lightweight plane.

Earlier this year, a stealth spy aircraft called the DarkStar crashed into an Edwards runway on takeoff. Tuesday’s incident marked the second loss of an Aurora-built plane at Edwards. Aurora’s Perseus, which was smaller and cost about $1.5 million, broke apart during a sharp dive on a test flight in November 1994.

“Losses are expected in this kind of testing,” said Langford from company headquarters in Manassas, Va.

The Theseus, designed to observe climatic conditions as part of the federal Mission Planet Earth project, was built under a $6-million NASA contract. Of that, $1.1 million went into research and development on the aircraft, which had a 140-foot wingspan and was constructed mostly of composite materials.

No funds have been appropriated for a second Theseus, but Langford believes they will be.

A NASA official at Edwards declined to comment on the future of the Theseus program.

In the Perseus incident, investigators blamed a faulty gyroscope for its breakup.

Langford said pilotless aircraft can be built at relatively low cost because “you don’t have to take along all the things that protect and nurture the pilot. Pressurization, oxygen, safety systems--they all drive up the cost and the weight.”

The Theseus was designed to remain at altitudes up to 60,000 feet for long periods of time.

Langford said a great deal of information was received before Theseus was destroyed.