JOHNSTOWN, Pa. -- It is sleek, with a wingspan of 17 feet and painted with tactical gray camouflage.

The unmanned aerial vehicle, named the Knighthawk, is powered by two 200-cc engines -- the size used on small motorcycles -- and is capable of a maximum speed of 70 mph. It can fly for up to 20 hours at a time and can reach an altitude of 15,000 feet.

The plane, flown by computers and pilots on the ground using radio control, was on display for the first time ever this week at the city's Showcase for Commerce. The event, held at the Frank J. Pasquerilla Conference Center, is an annual gathering of companies to display their technologies and products for sale across the region and around the world.

The prototype of the reconnaissance airplane is so new -- it was only completed at 6 a.m. Wednesday -- that it has not even been taken for its first test flight yet.

The Knighthawk is being built for Kuchera Defense Systems in Windber, a family-owned business with about 230 employees that does contracting work for the Department of Defense.

Though none of the Knighthawks are deployed yet, they will be used for gathering intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance. The body of the plane is made from carbon fiber and other composites, and it went from idea to prototype in six months.

"In December, it was a dream on paper," said John Craig, the president of Iron Bay Model Co., of Wheeling, W.Va., the company that built all of the molds for the plane.

Though it was close, and the team had to pull three all-nighters in one week, the Knighthawk was finished Wednesday morning, just in time to load it up on the trailer and get it to the show.

In celebration, the crew that built the airplane, including Craig's employees, all signed the inside of the plane's hatch in silver marker.

"They poured their blood, sweat and tears into this thing," he said.

It is stories like that of the Knighthawk that keep Congressman John Murtha working to bring technology and defense contracts to the Johnstown region.

Two decades ago, the region had lost tens of thousands of jobs in the steel mills and coal mines and had a 24 percent unemployment rate. Since then, Murtha, along with various economic development agencies, has worked to turn the Johnstown area into a leader in the high-tech and defense industries.

The payoffs were evident yesterday -- from walking through the more than 150 booths set up touting each company's products, to the new job creation announcements that were made. There were software developers, like Applied Perception, out of Pine, whose products will go into use next summer to monitor the perimeter of munitions dumps in Iraq; and manufacturers, like California-based NI Industries, which will open a facility in Davidsville, Somerset County, to make shoulder-fired rocket launchers for the U.S. military and its allies.

"People have said to me this is the best showcase in the entire world," Murtha said.

Besides the money being infused into the local economy by the number of people visiting Johnstown for the showcase, the sales being made are even more impressive.

"The millions of [dollars in] contracts that are being negotiated in that process are phenomenal," said Linda Thomson, the president of Johnstown Area Regional Industries.

For Craig, and Iron Bay Model Co., he estimates that the prototype cost of the Knighthawk -- including all of the computer software, avionics and engineering costs -- is about $750,000. Ultimately, though, the target production cost will be less than $100,000.

Craig hopes the Navy will order as many as 100 of the unmanned planes.

Iron Bay was paid $97,000 to build the molds for the Knighthawk, but Craig said he has at least double that into the project. He's not worried about the expense, though, because he believes he'll more than make up for it when the plane goes into production.

Iron Bay will continue to make the parts for the Knighthawk, but it will be Kuchera employees who assemble them, Craig said.

All of the plane's parts -- from the tires to the fuselage to the propellers -- are made by Craig's 12 employees. He started out in 1994, making model airplanes for wind-tunnel testing. Two years later, he landed a contract with the Air Force to make 1/7th scale model F-22 fighter jets for development and testing.

Now, he's making unmanned aircraft.

"When I first started the company, it was something to do to feed my hobby," Craig said.

Now, he said, Iron Bay Model Co. is the world's largest model airplane manufacturer.

"I've been into it ever since I was a kid," said Craig, who grew up near the Butler County airport. "It's my passion."