UV - Unmanned Vehicles
Zephyr flies for more than 25 days
The Zephyr S High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS) UAS has completed its maiden flight of more than 25 days, Airbus Defence and Space announced on 8 August.
The first production Zephyr completed the flight after taking off in Arizona, US, on 11 July.
The solar-electric Zephyr can fly above the weather and conventional air traffic, providing a pseudo satellite capability for persistent observation and surveillance missions.
Airbus is currently under contract to manufacture three of the platforms for the UK Ministry of Defence.
Jana Rosenmann, head of unmanned aerial systems at Airbus, said: ‘This very successful maiden flight represents a new significant milestone in the Zephyr programme, adding a new stratospheric flight endurance record which we hope will be formalised very shortly.
‘We will in the coming days check all engineering data and outputs and start the preparation of additional flights planned for the second half of this year from our new operating site at the Wyndham airfield in Western Australia.’
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