London-An unmanned solar aircraft has broken records for flying continuously without stopping.
The “Zephyr” aircraft, developed by QinetiQ the defense technology company in U.K., took off from U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona on July 9. Seven days on, it was still flying high.
Zephyr program director, Jon Saltmarsh told : “It’s extremely exciting. What we now have is an eternal plane. It has the same amount of fuel at the start of one day as it does at the start of another.”
Zephyr has already doubled its own unofficial record of over 82 hours and has broken the previous world record for unmanned flight of 30 hours and 24 minutes, set in 2001 by U.S. aerospace company, Northrop Grumman’s RQ-4A Global I.
The Zephyr concept was first conceived in 2001 and got funding from the UK’s Ministry of Defense (MOD) after three years. After several prototypes, Saltmarsh now thinks QinetiQ has now created an aircraft that can demonstrate genuine military utility.
“It has the persistence to stay up there for long periods of time and it carries payloads that are doing things that the military will find useful.”
Saltmarsh said its key role will be to aid communications.
“Sitting at 60,000 feet it’s ideal for getting a line of sight between two people in different valleys,” Saltmarsh said. “But it could also carry surveillance payloads.”
QinetiQ also said it will save the military fund, by performing many of the tasks currently carried out by manned aircraft.
Weighing just 53 kilograms (117 pounds), the plane has a wingspan of 22.5 meters (74 feet) and a wing area of around 30 square meters (323 square feet), the top side of which is covered in solar panels thinner than a sheet of paper.
The panels are rigged up by lithium-sulphur batteries which power the plane at night.
QinetiQ also started building the latest Zephyr model 18 months ago and they’re hoping to start full scale military trials after a year from now.
The company said that the Zephyr will also be helpful in civilian use helping during disaster relief situations, as well as forest fire monitoring.
“You can sit above a fire, with heat sensor technology and identify hotspots very quickly,” Saltmarsh said.
Zephyr shows no sign of running out of power anytime, and Saltmarsh is hopeful it will stay in the air for another seven days, when the plane will finally return to Earth.