published23. August 2022, 23:12
Longest unmanned flightUS drone flies non-stop for 64 days – now experts are puzzled regarding the cause of the crash
A US Army solar powered drone made history with an uninterrupted flight of 64 days. However, the Airbus drone just missed the record for the longest flight of all time.
It obtains the energy for the engines from the sun.
Airbus
On the last day of the flight, the Zephyr-8 circled over the Arizona desert.
ADSBExchange
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A US Air Force solar-powered drone has been in the air continuously for more than 64 days.
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It almost broke the record for the longest non-stop flight of all time.
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But then the aircraft, which weighed only 75 kilos, crashed for reasons that are still unknown.
A solar-powered drone stayed in Earth’s atmosphere for a total of 64 days before it crashed – more than doubling the record for an unmanned aerial vehicle. But now it crashed: The US Army announced this on Tuesday, but did not provide any information on the cause of the crash. “We are gathering the flight data under high pressure and evaluating them in order to be able to provide information regarding the unexpected crash,” said the flight control chief of the military project, Michael Monteleone.
The Zephyr 8 drone manufactured by the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus, with a wingspan of 25 meters and a weight of only 75 kilograms, “encountered events that led to its sudden end” on August 18 over the desert test site in Arizona. explained a representative of Airbus.
The statement didn’t provide any details, however, according to the aviation news site «Simple Flying», which is examining flight tracking data, the high-tech plane was looping over the southwestern United States at an altitude of 45,000 to 50,000 feet (14,000 to 15,000 meters) when it suddenly crashed at increased speed. According to the military, no one was injured in the incident.
According to the information, the unmanned drone flew almost the entire time in the stratosphere. Their ability to collect and transmit data and be controlled via satellite links was tested, Airbus explained.
Longest flight in the world climbed 1958/59
If the drone had stayed in the air just a few hours longer, it would have broken the record for the longest non-stop flight ever. This was set up in 1958/59 by two pilots in a converted Cessna 172, which stayed in the air for 64 days, 22 hours and 19 minutes and covered 240,000 kilometers, which corresponds to six times around the world or 15 times the Sydney-New York route . All the time they flew over the deserts of Nevada and California.
On the flight that was intended as a promotional stunt for a Las Vegas hotel and when «Hacienda Flight» became known, they refueled a total of 128 times by flying six meters above a tanker truck on a straight stretch of road and pumping kerosene from the ground into the aircraft. The food was delivered in thermos flasks. When they finally landed in the small, cramped aircraft more than two months later, the pilots Robert Timm and John Wayne Cook were no longer able to leave the cabin on their own.
The Cessna they used hangs above the baggage carousel at Las Vegas McCarran International Airport today.
(AFP/trx)