Qinetiq's Zephyr Sets World Record For Solar-Powered Flight

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Well folks, I think we might be looking at the birth of the first aeronautics race in a good long while–the solar powered aeronautics race, specifically. And the current frontrunner is, at last report, still in the air over Arizona, despite having been up there for seven days already. We’re talking about the Qinetiq Zephyr, and it’s done some amazing things. Like setting a new world’s record in endurance flight.

That’s right–Qinetiq’s Zephyr has been in the air for seven consecutive days already, and shows no signs of slowing down. The defense company behind it, Qinetiq, believes that it can double this measure successfully and plans to go for a whole other week before bringing the Zephyr down.

They’re testing this in Arizona due to its abundance of solar power, and the British-made plane is made of a combination of ultra-light, paper-thin silicon solar panels backed up with silicon-lithium batteries to power the device at night.

It’s already beaten the previous record holder, the United States’ Global Hawk, four times over and even managed to double its previous personal best held by an earlier version. So, best wishes to the Zephyr, which might well change the way we look at air travel.