This article isn't about current news, but is rather about old news that didn't get as much coverage as it deserved.

Back in 1976, the SR-71 Blackbird set an altitude record, for non-rocket-powered aircraft, of a little over 85,000 feet (over 16 miles). The Blackbird, designed by the legendary Lockheed Skunkworks for the CIA to replace the U2 spy plane, was an absolute magnificent beast of a plane. It still holds the speed record of 2,193.167 miles per hour, set on the same day it set the altitude record. The fleet of SR-71's was finally retired in 2001, primarily because they were so expensive to maintain and fly. But... this is not about the Blackbird, except for comparison purposes.

The Blackbird's 27-year-old altitude record was finally broken on August 13, 2001, by an aircraft privately designed and partially funded by NASA. The new record set was 96,863 feet (18 1/3 miles), which is above 99% of the earth's atmosphere. The air at that altitude is extremely thin, and the temperature is very cold. Flying in those conditions is amazing enough, but it's the other facts of that record-setting flight that are truly astounding:

• The plane, named Helios, is propeller-driven!
• Each of it's propellers is driven with about as much power as a hair dryer!
• It is remote-controlled, from the ground, so it has no pilot aboard!
• It reached a top speed of only 170 mph during the flight!
• It is solar-powered!
• It has a flexible wing!

Helios is about as far from the Blackbird as possible... a completely different approach. To be fair, the Blackbird had capabilities far beyond those of Helios, but altitude was certainly one of the primary criteria for both aircraft. Blackbird needed to be high to avoid detection and destruction, and to be able to photograph more territory.

Helios' wing is very wide (247 feet - wider than the wings of a 747), and is jointed into 6 sections. The wing can take different configurations, depending on conditions, from almost flat, to a "smiley" curve, and even an S-shape at times. The total weight of the craft is roughly the weight of your car. Under good conditions, it can take off in less distance than the width of it's wing, at a speed of about 20 MPH.

Since the record flight, Helios has been fitted with storage batteries to store power from the solar cells... power to use in darkness. As a result, Helios can stay aloft for 3 months or longer. Because it is slow-moving, it can remain almost stationary, which means that it can be used as a satellite... a satellite that doesn't require a massive rocket launch from Cape Kennedy.

What excites me most about Helios is that it is a great example of "thinking outside the box", and that it came from a private company, Aerovironment... the same company that produced the Gossamer Albatross and Gossamer Condor, man-powered aircraft, and other fascinating vehicles. Doing more with less is one way to think of their mode of operation. That way of thinking is something rarely associated with government projects, because the incentives are different. Government projects are notorious for expanding to far more cost than originally predicted, while the incentives of private companies are to find ways to reduce costs without sacrificing quality or performance, thus increasing their profit.

What is easy to forget are the bonuses we all receive from products that successfully "do more with less". Products that are innovative in either doing more or doing the same thing with fewer resources are indeed likely to increase profits, but they eventually benefit all of us. The profit motive is a powerful incentive, a driving force that is the major source of productivity. Such progress is all around us.

As I look out the window, I see vehicles driving by. Many of the people driving those vehicles will go through their whole lifetime without ever having to change a tire on their car. Chances are good that they don't even know where their jack and lug wrench are stashed. When I was a teenager, flat tires and blowouts were commonplace. Auto tires are immensely superior to those of 40 years ago, but, amazingly, they cost less.

Making profit in a competitive free market is the only incentive that can make such things happen. There are similar examples all around us... innovations and improvements that we often take for granted. Only a capitalistic free market produces such remarkable progress, and the freer it is, the more remarkable the results will be.