Zephyr breaks own record for longest unmanned flight

Image source, Airbus

According to flight- tracking data, the record for the longest flight of an UTA is currently held by Airbus.

The record for the longest flight by a solar-powered plane was set last year.

The craft flies high in the sky to avoid bad weather.

It doesn't need to stop to re-supply fuel because the aircraft has on-board batteries.

The aircraft flew from a test range in Arizona to a location in Central America.

The flight was not commented on by the aircraft manufacturer.

The latest flight tests are intended to test the UAV's energy storage capacity, battery longevity, solar panel efficiency, and station keeping.

According to Tim Robinson, editor-in-chief of Aerospace magazine, this distance marks an important milestone for the aircraft's ability to travel beyond the line of sight.

He said that they flew over the range from the year before. It went somewhere else after being transmitted out to this area and beyond line-of- sight communications.

That is an important demonstration of how you would use it.

He said that this opened the door for practical uses of the aircraft.

Image source, Airbus

The aircraft can provide imagery similar to a satellite, but it doesn't have the limitation of having to stay in one place.

It has an advantage over satellites that they can't return to Earth after being launched.

Mr Robinson said that it would come back to him. You can upgrade it with a new technology.

The latest model of the solar-powered aircraft was built in the UK.

Chris Kelleher was the inventor of Zephyr. The first serial production facilities for this type of aircraft were named in his honor.

Flight operators celebrated its 27th continuous day in the sky by referencing its heritage at the time of writing.

Operators used the aircraft's flight path to spell out the word "UK" and to show a picture of the monument.