Its two week day
Thats the manned solar impulse which is due to take off again on another trial flight. Don't forget that the Zephyr will pass the two weeks in the air point later today, Friday the 23rd of July. It does not take a rocket scientist to work out that the man is probably the weak link in the Solar Impulse!!
No offence meant to a very skilled pilot no doubt, but when you here them saying things like engine up 3 RPM and down 3 RPM you realise an autopilot should be handling that sort of thing... http://www.solarimpulse.com/nightFlights/
You have to keep him alive and happy as well. I could'nt help looking at the sponsors watch and his flying helmet and thinking, crumbs theres some amount of payload just there!
Maybe I am just very jealous and would love to be flying that airframe, one thing the man does bring to the party is the ability to get the thing flown around the world and beat regulations for UAS.
Good luck to them, I bet there are spin-offs into the UAS world.
Now those that can really ought to raise a glass to our UAS team, the chaps from QinetiQ when the appointed hour comes and hope that it has a safe landing.
The count down is here
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Comment by Tim - Arduino for Visual Studio on July 23, 2010 at 3:52am -
How cool is that, really pro stuff. I bet it's well documented tooo :)
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Moderator Comment by Gary Mortimer on July 23, 2010 at 6:31am
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Moderator Comment by Gary Mortimer on July 23, 2010 at 6:39am -
By the time I finish typing this and hit return the Zephyr will have flown for 14 days............ Deep deep joy. Now lets hope it has a safe landing.
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Comment by Grahame Algar on July 23, 2010 at 6:43am -
Fantastic news, now all they have to do is land!!
Looking forward to seeing much more coverage.
Gray
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Comment by Tim - Arduino for Visual Studio on July 23, 2010 at 6:46am
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When the MOD sold QinetiQ I wasn't sure if it would be a good thing or not, but they have gone from strength to strength
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Comment by simonl on July 23, 2010 at 11:12am -
Just read on BBC website that Zephyr has been commanded to land - after 336 hours, 24 minutes - because it has nothing more to prove :-) Read "'Eternal plane' returns to Earth" - WTG Qinetiq (UK doing its UAV bit)
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Comment by bGatti on July 23, 2010 at 2:47pm -
Killer Application.
It should be noted that this flight will do more to enable UAS flights over non-militarized airspace than any other single flight and perhaps more than all other UAV flights to date. This flight demonstrates a flight which cannot essentially be performed by a pilot (fatigue, food and water requirements would prevent even a two-person team from existing on such a flight to say nothing of the misery.) - and a huge benefit - satellite services at low cost - think Sirius, Rural Internet, Mobile Internet, Sat Phones, Indoor GPS, Live TV broadcasts without the truck and wire, traffic reporting, news and police helis without the crashes, Indeed the range of services unleashed by cheap and near satellite access could be "The Next Big Thing" or the key to reemployment and the end of the current recession.
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Moderator Comment by Gary Mortimer on July 23, 2010 at 2:53pm -
Great video in that BBC link, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10733998 showing some of how its made.
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Comment by Kevin Breen on July 23, 2010 at 6:03pm -
"This flight demonstrates a flight which cannot essentially be performed by a pilot (fatigue, food and water requirements would prevent even a two-person team from existing on such a flight to say nothing of the misery.)"
Dont' forget a two person team set a world record flying the Voyager non-stop around the world in 9 plus days. They were miserable, yes, but sometimes pilots are "a necessary evil" in flying.
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Moderator Comment by Gary Mortimer on July 23, 2010 at 8:19pm -
Yeah they are needed right now to get around regs!! Hence OPVs that are popping up.
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