Solar-powered plane flies 82 hours

Those smart pants at Qinetiq are behind this – a solar-powered spy plane that has stayed in the sky for 82 hours.

Imagine if we could sort the carbon trouble around plane flights – guilt-free holidays.

Unfortunately, these spy planes are generally light-weight, carbon fiber jobbies. Not hulking great air buses with 300 people on board, plus luggage, plus pets, plus music gear for playing gigs…

Anyway – it’s bank holiday in the UK today, so things are a little quiet here at Greenbang Towers. So here’s the Guardian story:

“The flight, at the US army’s Yuma ground in Arizona, more than doubled the record time but, since it was done to test the ability of Zephyr to relay ground radio messages, did not fulfil all the requirements of a world record attempt.

However the aircraft’s designers, at the defence firm QinetiQ, in the UK, think the plane could fly indefinitely. “We think the aircraft, in future, will be capable of weeks or months duration,” said Paul Davey, Zephyr’s business development director at QinetiQ.”