miércoles, 07 de julio de 2010 Around 16h40, the prototype even exceeded the 8'500 meters that were intended and reached an altitude of 8,700 meters. With the help of its 12,000 solar panels built into its enormous 63.4 meter wing, its 400kg of batteries were fully charged during this long ascent. The prototype first flew over Western Switzerland ("Swiss Plateau") and now heads in the direction of the Thuner Lake. "The prototype is ready to begin its journey through the night! It is now going to start a slow descent, whi

viernes, 16 de julio de 2010 Currently flying high above the US Army's Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, Zephyr has already passed the seven day / 168 hour mark and the clock is still running. This DOUBLES the unofficial world record for longest duration unmanned flight of 82 hours, 37 minutes set in 2008 and already held by Zephyr, and is well in excess of the current official world record of 30 hours 24 minutes set by Northrop Grumman's RQ-4A Global Hawk on 22 March 2001. As a bold statement of intent QinetiQ invited the Federation...

viernes, 23 de julio de 2010 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. An official from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) (http://www.fai.org/), the world air sports federation, has been monitoring progress at the.