A lightweight solar-powered plane has smashed the official world record for the longest-duration unmanned flight. UK defence firm Qinetiq, which built the Zephyr unmanned aerial vehicle, said it flew for 54 hours during tests.
The researchers believe it is the first time a solar-powered craft has flown under its own power through two nights.
The Zephyr’s 54-hour endurance flight will not enter the record books because representatives from the world air sports federation – the FAI – were not notified about the secretive test. However, they were informed about a second, 33-hour flight which could still become an official record.
Zephyr’s development team say that whatever the result, it believes it has built a record breaker.
“This aeroplane is going to go a lot higher and a lot further,” Chris Kelleher, Zephyr’s technical director and “pilot”, told the BBC News website. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
What with affordability and productivity, the skies are getting pretty crowded with spy planes.
Very cool. I wonder how long before it can support about 325 pounds of humans and cargo.
Just think for micro-satellites, GPS accurate to a centimetre, surveillance, scientific monitoring.
Hundreds of these networked together will allow this to happen, at a fraction of the cost of regular satellites.
Just land one to upgrade it’s electronics. Great future in this technology.
“In 2010, Swiss balloonist Bertrand Piccard plans to launch Solar Impulse, a manned plane in which he will attempt to circumnavigate the globe.”
At the speed one of these planes can fly, that’ll take a few days. He’ll have to pick some global-wide good weather. That’s going to be one heck of a flight.
I’m wondering about counter measures. Those things have to be very fragile, and easy to shoot down. Will we be seeing dog fights between the snoop planes and home guard planes sometime? Electronically controlled hawks seeking and destroying spy planes?
I don’t really see the real practical use of these even if they added payload.
If they are high enough to get out of surface weather they aren’t fast enough to overcome high altitude winds.
The could do little to enhance the GPS network that a few ground based transmitters would do better.
#1
In other words a manned American flight.
#3 Bubb Ray
That is cool any links to share?
#7, KVolk, here are a couple of links about Piccard’s project. With the money he has, I don’t doubt he’ll be successful. But he won’t make it nonstop, no one is crazy enough to pilot a craft like this and stay awake for 5 or 6 days.
National Geographic-
http://tinyurl.com/2hemqd
Piccard’s page-
http://www.solarnavigator.net/solar_impulse.htm
This should make the COMMIE / NAZI’s happy, one step closer to Big Brother having a 24/7 eye in the sky. Tracking and logging us 24/7, I hope you’re happy with the Globalist caste structure you’re helping to create.