Brits develop solar powered spy plane

Sunday Telegraph:

With solar panels along its 60ft wingspan, the Zephyr promises to revolutionise military intelligence.

The unmanned aircraft stores power from the sun in its batteries, allowing it to continue through the night and, potentially, stay in the air for months at a time.

Unlike conventional spy planes, which need regular refuelling and so make relatively short flights, it will give commanders an unbroken picture of the battlefield.

The engineers who created the Zephyr also believe it will have important civilian applications, including search-and-rescue operations and police surveillance.

It has been developed by the British defence company Qinetiq, which will announce the record-breaking flight tomorrow.

The plane is designed to provide surveillance and communication support for military personnel on the ground by circling slowly over a battle zone, tracking troop movements with its on-board camera. It can reach 70mph at 60,000ft.

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It does not sound like it has any weapons capability beyond observation. Its altitude numbers are impressive. It is a very slow craft and would probably not survive an encounter with an enemy aircraft. Still the indefinite time aloft is impressive. A video accompanied the story.