Zephyr solar plane flies 7 days non-stop

Zephyr solar plane flies 7 days non-stop

www.bbc.co.uk

The UK-built Zephyr solar-powered plane has smashed the endurance record for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

The craft took off from the US Army's Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona at 1440 BST (0640 local time) last Friday and is still in the air.

Its non-stop operation, day and night, means it has now gone five times longer than the official mark recognised by the world air sports federation.

The plane has been developed by the defence and research company Qinetiq.
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“Start Quote

We have the first 'eternal plane'”

End Quote Jon Saltmars

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Could this be the future of satellites ? My concerns would be the batteries would not last and need replacing after so many charges.Also would bad weather cause them to fall out of the sky. Would they be a hazard for aircraft if there were large numbers of these perpetually in the sky. However the plus side is zero emissions which is considerably less than a rocket launch of a satellite into orbit.


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Amazing!

The sun worshiping pagans are gonna get it Kidding.

This is an awesome achievement. If we can get past the war and greed, the new dawn of man will be glorious.

reply to post by tarifa37


Um satellites are already powered by the sun....

This might be the future of satellite relays, maybe speed up the response time by adding a middle man. I doubt it though. It will probably just be used for recon and military crap and junk and stuff.

The battery would eventually need to be replaced but Solar power is pretty gentle on batteries so I doubt it would need it very often.

[edit on 16-7-2010 by DaMod]

Yep well done 7 Days
Cant wait, add a few more of these to the skies and there pops up the sound of Big Brother alarm bells again.

reply to post by DaMod


Accept as I said there is no pollution of a rocket launch not to mention expense. These batteries are powering the propellers for at least 12 hours a day which is quite a heavy load on the batteries. I was thinking of the electric cars that need their batteries replacing at a very high cost after a few years. I suppose unlike a satellite they will simply land the planes repair etc then send them aloft again.