The race for long endurance UAS?
Am I missing something or is Flight not loving QinetiQ, their correspondant Stephen Trimble reports from AUVSI….
Both the AeroVironment Global Observer (GO) and the Boeing Phantom Eye scaled demonstrator are now poised to enter flight-testing before February, kicking off the race to set the next long-endurance flight record.
The immediate goal for the competing teams is to shatter that record held by the unmanned, gas-powered Boeing Condor and set in 1988 by circling over Moses Lake, Washington, at higher than 65,000ft (19,830m) for more than 59h.
Or perhaps its just that the 336 hour and 22 minutes flown by the QinetiQ Zephyr has not been officially ratified yet.
The AeroVironment and Boeing entries as cutting edge as they might be are playing catch up to the Boscombe Boys.
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Update
Well you would’nt believe it in the plot of a novel as just as I typed that John Mc Hale posted this
DENVER, 24 Aug. 2010. QinetiQ has filed for three world records for Zephyr , its solar powered high-altitude long endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), with the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI). Zephyr stayed aloft for 14 nights — or 336 hrs and 22 minutes — above the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, before being brought safely back to earth having achieved all the objectives of the trial.
Subject to ratification the records filed include: the absolute duration record for a UAV — being filed at 336 hours and 22 minutes; the duration record for a UAV (in the U/1.c/50-500 kilograms category) — same time as above; and the absolute altitude record for a UAV (in the above category) — being filed at 70,740 feet (21,561 meters).
An official from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI), the world air sports federation, monitored every aspect of Zephyr’s progress at the Yuma Proving Ground from launch to safe landing.
“We now await official FAI confirmation that we have met all necessary criteria,” says Jon Saltmarsh, Zephyr program director. “This is a tremendous achievement, earning Zephyr a well deserved place in the record books and setting a significant milestone in aviation history.”
