Boeing plans to build a solar powered UAV capable of 5 years sustained flight challenging conventional notions about what goes up…

excerpt:

"Boeing has won an $89 million government contract to build and fly an unmanned solar-powered plane that can--eventually--stay aloft continuously for up to five years. Yes, that's five years.

The defense contractor will develop the SolarEagle aircraft for the Vulture II program run by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as DARPA. Scheduled to get off the ground for its first demo flight in 2014, the plane will likely serve as an electronic sensor and military communications platform. But it could eventually turn into a less expensive alternative to communications and reconnaissance satellites."

from cnet:http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-20016657-76.html

Although, I understand the DIY Drones community is already working on something much cooler:

excerpt:

"If, for some unknown reason, the Air Force desperately needs to surveil northern tier wheat patches, let’s have a new class of airspace called MOA/DRONE. Put it on the chart, just like that, MOA/DRONE. Then, place the UAVs under positive control and equip them with VHF comm so the operator can talk directly to any aircraft sharing the MOA on a common advisory frequency. That’s how MOAs work now. Pilots who want to enter them can do so on an own-risk basis, or they can circumnavigate the area. There’s always risk in entering MOAs and if you don’t like that, don’t fly there.

The reality is that UAVs are becoming an ever larger part of the U.S. airspace picture. This is likely to grow exponentially over the next decade. Sooner or later, they are going to have to be integrated into the way the civil world does business. The services have to get over the knee-jerk reaction to carve out restricted airspace every time a robot wants to go flying and we in the civil world have to get over the irrational fear of sharing airspace with these things. If we don’t, there won’t be any airspace left for civil use.

Yes, there will be accidents. Drones will occasionally get away—as one did near Washington recently—and they’ll probably crash in spectacular ways. But it has always been and will always be thus with flying machines. We can nanny ourselves to a froth over this stuff to the point that the only response will be to cower in a dark closet with your butt bumped against the wall charger for the robotic vacuum cleaner."