Planes flies on solar power for 82 hours
By: Nikki | August 25, 2008
An un-official world record was set last night as the Zephyr a British-built spy plane managed to stay in the air for 82 hours and 37 minutes powered only by solar panels and rechargeable batteries at night.
The plane could fly indefinitely says the aircraft designers at the defence firm QinetiQ, they feel that in the future the Zephyr would be able to fly for weeks or months at a time.
£20 million pound has been invested into the Zephyr so far by the Ministry of Defence. The plane weighs 30kg (66lbs) which is strong enough to 2kg flying at about 60,000ft.
The plane has a rechargeable battery that is twice a efficient as anywhere in the world, the plane itself is made with a carbon fibre frame and is covered in super-light solar arrays that are thinner than paper. The flight which took place at the US army’s Yuma grounds in Arizona was launched by three people holding it above their heads as they run for takeoff.
There is an official world record set by Global Hawk in 2001 of an uncrewed flight and that stands at 30 hours and 24 minutes
Source: Guardian
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