{"id":93320,"date":"2021-10-13T16:50:10","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T05:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/?p=93320"},"modified":"2021-10-13T16:50:10","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T05:50:10","slug":"airbus-breaks-altitude-record-in-zephyr-test-flights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/2021\/10\/airbus-breaks-altitude-record-in-zephyr-test-flights\/","title":{"rendered":"Airbus breaks altitude record in Zephyr test flights"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Airbus’ Zephyr completed summer 2021 test flights (Airbus).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Airbus has completed successful flight tests of its solar-powered Zephyr S unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), reaching almost three weeks in the air and breaking its altitude record.<\/p>\n

The final High Altitude Platform System (HAPS) touched down on 13 September in Arizona after completing six flights \u2013 four low level and two stratospheric flights.<\/p>\n

As part of Airbus\u2019 aim to become carbon neutral, the Zephyr was designed to remain in the stratosphere for months at a time, aiding military and commercial capabilities.<\/p>\n

Each of the stratospheric flights flew for around 18 days, totalling more than 36 days of flight in the campaign, proving its \u201coperational reality\u201d for future customers.<\/p>\n

The UAV managed to also reach an absolute altitude 76,100 feet \u2013 setting a new world record.<\/p>\n

James Gavin, Future Capability Group head at Defence Equipment & Support, the procurement arm of the UK Ministry of Defence, said the flights took a step towards \u201coperationalising the stratosphere\u201d.<\/p>\n

Stratospheric flights are considered time efficient and smoother as the air is thinner in a higher altitude, which decreases turbulence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking with Airbus and the Zephyr team during the 2021 flight campaign, significant progress has been made towards demonstrating HAPS as a capability,\u201d Gavin added.<\/p>\n

Airbus received three orders of its Zephyr 8 in 2016 from the Minister of Defence in the UK, now a critical part of its military industry, according to Major General Rob Anderton-Brown, director of Capability and MDI Change Programme at Strategic Command.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Zephyr is] informing the development of new concepts and ways of enabling military operations, particularly in the context of multi-domain integration,\u201d Anderton-Brown said.<\/p>\n

The aerospace giant said Zephyr has the potential to aid disaster management, surveillance, trace environmental changes and communications to remote regions.<\/p>\n

The UAV has a wingspan of 25 metres and weighs less than 75 kilograms, adopting a payload coverage of 20 to 30 kilometres for surveillance.<\/p>\n

The UAV carries an Optical Advanced Earth Observation system for Zephyr (OPAZ) to increase its situational awareness, Airbus said.<\/p>\n

Airbus says sensors located in the stratosphere can direct changes in the environment more precisely.<\/p>\n

The aircraft completed its maiden flight in 2018 in Arizona when it remained in the air for almost 26 days by recharging its batteries mid-flight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe flight campaign had a clear customer focus \u2013 to demonstrate how Zephyr could be used for future operations, flying outside of restricted airspace and over airspace shared with commercial air traffic,\u201d Airbus said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Airbus has completed successful flight tests of its solar-powered Zephyr S unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), reaching almost three weeks in the air and breaking its altitude record. The final High Altitude Platform System (HAPS) touched down on 13 September in Arizona after completing six flights \u2013 four low level and two stratospheric flights. As part<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3418,"featured_media":93321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[322],"tags":[58],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93320"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93320"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93325,"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93320\/revisions\/93325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}