NASA's Centurion holds promise of eternal flight

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, California (CNN) -- With barely a sound, one of NASA's newest creations lifted off Thursday from Edwards Air Force Base.

The flying wing they call Centurion spans 206 feet with 14 small engines. It only flies about 20 miles per hour, but it can climb to 100,000 feet to the very edge of space.

With Centurion and future designs, NASA hopes to perfect an unmanned, remote controlled plane that can inexpensively carry communications gear aloft -- and stay there for long periods of time.

The next major step will be to cover much of the wing with lightweight solar cells. Such a power supply may lead to what the experts call eternal flight.

"During the day it will charge batteries and after the sun sets at night it will discharge those batteries and stay aloft," says Dick Swanson of SunPower Inc., NASA's Centurion partner. "Conceptually it could stay aloft forever,"

This could allow the plane to act almost as a satellite, its developers say, though it would be far cheaper to launch and its flight path could be changed at will.

As the name Centurion implies, it could usher in the new century -- not with the roar of a rocket, but with the hushed whisper of a solar-powered wing.