QinetiQ Zephyr
| Airbus Zephyr | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| An artist's impression of the UAV | |
| Role | High altitude long endurance unmanned aircraft |
| National origin | United Kingdom |
| Design group | initially Qinetiq, now Airbus Defence and Space |
The Airbus Zephyr is a series of lightweight solar-powered UAV originally designed and built in 2003 by the British company, QinetiQ. The development of the aircraft is ongoing and currently part of the Airbus High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS) programme.
The Zephyr 7 holds the official endurance record for an unrefuelled, unmanned aerial vehicle with its flight from 9 July to 23 July 2010, lasting 336 hours, 22 minutes and 8 seconds. It could also remain airborne for months thanks to its solar cells and rechargeable batteries. Record claims have been verified by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) for both duration and altitude, at 21,562 meters. It more than doubled the previous endurance record for unmanned flight.
In a 2008 demonstration for the US military, a smaller-scale version of the Zephyr (Zephyr 6) performed beyond the official world record for the longest-duration unmanned flight, however its 82-hour flight at an altitude of 61,000 ft (19,000 m) did not set an official record because FAI officials were not involved in the flight.
The Zephyr system was sold to EADS Astrium (now Airbus Defence and Space) in March 2013 where it was successfully re-flown as part of the High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS) programme In 2014 it flew for 11 days in winter, and later near civilian airspace.
It is of carbon-fibre construction, and uses sunlight to charge a lithium-sulphur battery during the day, which powers the aircraft at night. The aircraft has been designed for use in observation and communications relay.
The vehicle can circle over a particular area for extended periods with particular emphasis on its potential civil and military applications as an Earth observation and communications platform. During the day, Zephyr uses its state-of-the-art solar cells spread across its wings to recharge high-power lithium-sulphur batteries and drive two propellers. At night, the energy stored in the batteries is sufficient to maintain Zephyr in the sky. The lithium sulphur batteries are supplied by Sion, and the first version had a battery capacity of 3kWh.
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