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'Eternal' Solar Plane Stays Two Weeks Aloft
An anonymous reader writes "The BBC has a story on the confirmation of the record breaking flight of Qinetiq's Zephyr UAV: 'The UK-built solar-powered Zephyr aeroplane has been confirmed as a record-breaker following its non-stop two-week flight earlier this year. The world governing body for air sports records, the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI), gave Zephyr three records including longest time aloft. Built by defense technology company Qinetiq, the craft completed its two-week flight in the US in July. The company sees applications in surveillance and communications. The July feat led to Zephyr being dubbed the "eternal plane."' YouTube has some footage of the Zephyr in action."
Merry Xmas, /.! XD
Now I have yet another excuse for why I never remove my sombrero.
While Qinetiq has managed two weeks, DARPA is working on a five-year lifespan for its vehicles through the VULTURE program.
Additional specs: 450 kg payload, 5kW payload power and flight in the 60k ft region.
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Not even close. What about "Five Weeks in a Balloon"?
And there have been astronauts and cosmonauts on Mir and ISS for 6 months at a time...
The irony abounds, even if they could go longer.
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Now let's not go overboard here. The basic laws of Physics indicate that any "solar powered plane" is going to be a very iffy thing. You can only get 150 watts per square meter of wing surface, that's when the sun is shining and at right angles to the sun. So you're talking about a very slow and very underpowered airplane, with like at best some pitiful and hazardous climb rate.
No way it could ever be certificated for carrying humans.
No way it could ever be certificated for carrying humans.
Oh, damn. You should tell that to the people working on the Solar Impulse.
They'll be glad for all the work they wont have to do.
Also, they can seek treatment for the mass hallucination of
the 24h+ flight last July.
We're still talking low power and relatively slow, and you are
right that this will probably never be a way to power normal
travel - but "it" (meaning a purely solar powered heavier-than-air
aircraft) already has carried humans.
No one is talking about human certification - the article and the designers specifically mention it has been designed for small payloads, communications and science duties, not for passenger flight.
Reading the article, or even the TFS where this is stated explicitly would be useful.
This isn't even close to the manned aircraft record. In the 50s some nuts kept a Cessna 172 flying for more than 2 months. When the generator gave out they hoisted up a small wind generator, taped it to a struct, and ran the power in through the cigarette lighter. Now that's what I call a record!
Is to give lots of money to SENS so we can start working on eternal humans. Well, more eternal than two weeks, please!
Defence contractor makes a high-tech unmanned spyplane using a cutting edge "5 blokes in t-shirts" launch system, truly it makes one proud to be British.
On the other hand, a solar-assisted, solar-charged plane might be a really good idea, if these electric airplanes ever become viable. Batteries still suck.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I read the linked article and wondered why they stopped at 14 days. Still not certain, but it appears they made a decision to do so, instead of some malfunction or loss of elevation, according to their press release:
QinetiQ will today bring Zephyr, its solar powered high-altitude long endurance (HALE) Unmanned Air System (UAS) back to earth after two weeks in the air - smashing a number of long-standing official and unofficial world records.
Zephyr was launched on 09 July and is currently still flying above the US Army's Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. Today Zephyr will have been aloft for 14 nights continuously, achieving the objective of the trial and setting a number of performance and altitude records. At this point QinetiQ's Zephyr team in Yuma will bring the aircraft back to earth.
Does anyone have further details? Were they just tired, met the design/test objectives, and wanted to process all of that? I'd think if it were "eternal", it could have just been left there flying and would still be up there today. My *guess* is that it may be unmanned, but not entirely autonomous, so it required people on-site to monitor and control it.
These guys stayed aloft over 64 days in a Cessna 172... In 1959!
http://m.aopa.org/aircraft/articles/2010/101209world_endurance_flying_record.html
Much more significant than that. It's a record for unrefuelled flight, regardless of what the source of power is.
Wrong. It's not a record for UAV's only; it's a record for unrefuelled flight in a powered vehicle, no matter whether manned or not, and no matter whether heavier than air or lighter than air.
The video is two weeks long!!!
The plane did not have any of the following:
1. A payload adding extra weight and extra energy to keep aloft.
2. Sensors to gather data. These sensors would require power to run decreasing the amount of energy going into the battery.
3. Transmitters to sends data to the ground. Same energy drain as above.
With all that extra energy drain will the plane stay up over night.
I also shake my head when I see that the test is done in Summer when the days are the longest and the nights are the shortest. This way one has the longest charge time and the shortest discharge time. Try the same thing in winter when the charge time is shorter and the discharge time is longer and the plane may not stay aloft through the night. A UAV that can be used only part of the year is not very viable.
Without an energy draining payload flown in winter all they managed to do was demonstrate a very expensive RC toy not a viable surveillance UAV.
Eternity ain't what it used to be.