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Until an earthquake in 226 BCE knocked it down, the Colossus of Rhodes, a 98-foot-high iron and bronze statue of the Greek god Helios, sat near the harbor of Rhodes, Greece, for 54 years. Now, a plan put forth by a small team of scientists seeks to rebuild the ancient statue and boost tourism and local jobs in the process. The plan calls for a a new statue that's way taller than the ancient one. At 400 feet tall, the new Helios would be nearly four times the height of the original. The proposal also includes an interior library, museum,...

Wracked by debt but blessed with abundant sunshine, Greece plans to develop some 20,000 hectares of solar power parks in a bid to export renewable energy to Germany, a report said on Saturday. Top-selling Ta Nea daily said the project, which has a tentative budget of 20 billion euros ($29 billion), could create 60,000 jobs at a time when Greece is battling a deep recession and record unemployment figures. Germany is looking for alternative energy sources after chancellor Angela Merkel's government decided to shut down all 17 of the country's nuclear reactors over 11 years, following the disaster at the...

Explanation: An example of solar-powered flight, NASA's Helios aircraft flew almost one hundred years after the Wright brothers' historic flight on December 17, 1903. Pictured here at 3,000 meters in in skies northwest of Kauai, Hawaii, USA in August 2001, the remotely piloted Helios is traveling at about 40 kilometers per hour. Essentially an ultralight flying wing with 14 electric motors, the aircraft was built by AeroVironment Inc. Covered with solar cells, Helios' impressive 247 foot wide wing exceeded the wing span and even overall length of a Boeing 747 jet airliner. Climbing during daylight hours, the prototype aircraft ultimately...

Paris - A confusing series of alarm signals and the lack of an effective common language between its pilots doomed a Cypriot airliner that crashed near Athens last month, killing all 121 people on board, the daily International Herald Tribune said on Wednesday, quoting investigators. An air system knob that had been incorrectly set during maintenance on the ground prevented the Helios Airways Boeing 737 from pressurising properly, but the crew failed to notice the problem during their preflight checks, people connected to the investigation told the newspaper. Then, as the aircraft ascended through 3 000m, a pressurisation alarm -...

Investigator tells Flight International that student pilot tried to fly aircraft to Athens with flightcrew unconscious The Helios Airways Boeing 737-300 that crashed in Greece on 14 August ran out of fuel as a student private pilot attempted to fly the aircraft towards Athens airport because the flightcrew was unconscious, the head of the Greek Air Accident Investigation and Aviation Safety Board (AAIASB) Capt Akrivos Tsolakis has told Flight International. The aircraft, with six crew and 115 passengers on board, had been airborne for 2h 59min on a flight from Larnaca, Cyprus to Athens that was scheduled to take about...

TESTS on victims of the Cyprus plane crash showed no sign of carbon monoxide poisoning, a finding that one aviation medicine expert said yesterday could indicate the 121 passengers and crew died from lack of oxygen. ... "The fact that there is no evidence of carbon monoxide poisoning and evidence that the bodies were frozen suggests strongly that they died from anoxia -- the lack of oxygen," Mr Perry said. "This would have come about from a catastrophic pressurisation failure at 35,000 feet with outside air temperatures of minus 50 or so and no air to speak of." The plane...

The crash of a Cypriot airliner that killed 121 people near Athens likely occurred after it ran out of fuel while heading towards Athens International Airport, a senior government source said Tuesday. "We surmise that the (Helios Airways) plane was heading towards Athens International Airport and that it ran out of fuel," the government official told AFP on condition of anonymity. All 121 people aboard the aircraft died in the accident, which is believed to have occurred after a disastrous air supply failure almost two hours before it smashed into a mountain near the Greek capital. Earlier on Tuesday officials...

Cypriot police raid Helios Airways officesNICOSIA (Reuters) - Cypriot police on Monday raided the Nicosia offices of Helios Airways, owners of the Boeing 737 that crashed in Greece a day earlier killing all 121 people on board, a government spokesman said. "After allegations brought by the Communications and Works Minister and the chief of police, the attorney general issued search warrants for the central offices of Helios to collect documents and other evidence that might be useful in a possible criminal investigation," spokesman Marios Karoyan told Reuters. Cypriot communications and works minister Haris Thrasou also oversees transport, including civil aviation....

Marking 100 years of man's success in conquering the skies, 2003 saw milestones for both what has been done and what is yet to come. Celebrations throughout the year culminated in the Dec. 17 anniversary of the Wright brothers' first successful powered flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C., a feat which set in motion changes that are still being felt and improved upon today. In the century since that flight, worldwide air travel has become common; space travel has moved from science fiction to reality; and air power has altered warfare. Although the Centennial of Flight marked a success, the year...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 December 20 The Flight Of Helios Photo Credit: Carla Thomas, courtesy DFRC, NASA Explanation: An example of solar-powered flight, NASA's Helios aircraft flew almost one hundred years after the Wright brothers' historic flight on December 17, 1903. Pictured here at 10,000 feet in in skies northwest of Kauai, Hawaii in August 2001, the remotely piloted Helios is traveling at about 25 miles per hour. Essentially an ultralight...

<p>The Helios Prototype crashed Thursday near the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands about 30 minutes after taking off. The investigators will spend the next week on Kauai trying to figure out what went wrong.</p> <p>The remotely piloted, $15 million aircraft was traveling at a speed of about 21 mph at 3,000 feet when it broke up and crashed, said Alan Brown, a spokesman for NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif.</p>

Despite the loss of its $15 million, one-of-a-kind aircraft, the Helios program will continue in its drive to achieve high-altitude, long-endurance flight using innovative fuel cell systems. The remotely-controlled, solar-powered Helios Prototype aircraft was destroyed June 26 when it crashed into the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii during a check flight. Built by AeroVironment Inc. as part of NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology program at Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Helios was preparing for a nearly two-day endurance flight next month. The craft was tested at Edwards and is still managed at Dryden. With a...

The unmanned, solar-powered prototype Helios aircraft was destroyed Thursday when it crashed into the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii during a check flight in preparation for a nearly two-day endurance flight later this summer. The remotely-piloted Helios, built by AeroVironment Inc. as part of NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology program at Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, was designed for high-altitude, long-duration flights. The craft was tested at Edwards and still is managed at Dryden. The gangly, flying-wing aircraft, its 247-foot wingspan covered with more than 60,000 solar cells, took off from the U.S. Navy's Pacific...

HONOLULU - An unmanned plane that set an altitude record two years ago broke apart during a test flight Thursday and crashed into the Pacific Ocean, NASA (news - web sites) officials said. The remotely piloted, one-of-a-kind Helios Prototype crashed off Kauai within the testing area of the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said in a news release. The $15 million, solar-electric, propeller-driven Helios had a wingspan of 247 feet and looked more like a flying wing than a conventional plane. It reached an altitude of 96,500 feet during a 2001...