US Army drone crashes hours ahead of breaking flight duration record
An unmanned, solar-powered drone was hours from breaking the world record for the longest-duration flight before it suddenly crashed.
Armed with solar panels, weighing less than 75 kilograms and with a wingspan of 25 meters, the Zephyr 8 model, developed by Airbus, is designed to fly for long periods of time with no crew. A test flight conducted by the US Army lasted 64 days and would have toppled the current world record for the longest flight if it stayed airborne for just another day.
The Zephyr smashed the previous record for drone flight duration in July, which had been set in 2018 at a little under 26 days, as well as setting an altitude record for unmanned platforms of 76,100 feet. It was chasing the 1959 duration record, set by Robert Timm and John Cook, who flew a Cessna 172 non-stop for 64 days, 22 hours and 19 minutes by refueling the aircraft from a moving truck, a trip that covered about 150,000 miles.
The drone went down on August 19, after ground controllers lost contact with the aircraft over Arizona. It had been flying over the southwestern United States at over 60,000 feet.
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