Army's Solar-Powered Drone Crashes After 64 Days in the Air

The Airbus Zephyr’s ‘unexpected termination’ comes after it surpassed all known uncrewed aircraft endurance records.

Wednesday, August 24, 2022 at 05:23 PM ET

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During the 64-day trial, the drone ascended to more than 60,000 feet before it flew a course over the southern U.S., the Gulf of Mexico, and South America before returning to Yuma airspace. [Courtesy: Airbus Defence]

Key Takeaways:

The U.S. Army's solar-powered Airbus Zephyr UAS crashed after completing a record-breaking 64-day flight test.
The drone achieved an unprecedented 1,500 flight hours, significantly surpassing all previous unmanned aircraft endurance records.
The test aimed to evaluate the UAS's energy storage, battery longevity, and station-keeping for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities.
Despite the unexpected termination due to "events" leading to a rapid descent, the Army gathered invaluable data on high-altitude UAS platforms, with the cause of the crash currently under investigation.

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A U.S. Army flight test of its solar-powered Airbus Defence Zephyr ultra-long endurance stratospheric unmanned air system (UAS) has abruptly ended with a crash, after more than two months in air.

Army Future Command’s Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing/Space (APNT/Space) Cross-Functional Team (CFT) launched the Zephyr 8 UAS on June 15 at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona to test the UAS’s energy storage capacity, battery longevity, station-keeping abilities, and solar panel efficiency as a means to boost intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities.