| Title:
| Robot fliers racing to catch the Zephyr
|
| Description:
| The Pentagon's hope of having a squadron of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) capable of staying in the air and performing surveillance for years rather than hours recently took a small step forward. Working with U.K.-based idea factory QinetiQ Group PLC, researchers from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) managed to keep the solar-powered Zephyr high-altitude, long-endurance aircraft in the air over the Arizona desert for 82 hours 37 minutes. ... The flight, which took place between July 28 and 31, researchers guided the Zephyr by remote control to an operating altitude in excess of 60,000 ft (18 km), according to BBC News. After that, the aircraft, which carried a 4.4-pound (2-kilogram) payload, flew on autopilot and via satellite communication.
|
| Author:
| Larry Greenemeier
|
| Orig. Date:
| August 25, 2008
|
| Source:
| Scientific American
|
| Subject:
|
|
| Contributor:
| Bruce Buchanan
|
| Comments:
|
|
| Type:
| Text
|
| Language:
| English
|
| Format:
| html
|
| Last Edit:
| Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:21:00 -0700
|
Comment/Query/Broken link
