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  • Moderator
    Gary Mortimer July 21, 2010 at 12:59pm
    I think landing is an issue, especially as regards weather, it has to be good all the way down from 60k, so will they be able to get down for Friday and grab some media during Farnborough or will they have to keep going?? Saturday morning looks OK to me but what do I know. If they keep going the low level weather looks like its getting poor from Monday for another week. Can it fly that long.........

    The one in the video is the old one, I think the new one is nearly twice the size, if they do get to 14 days we ought to have a world party to celebrate at 1440 BST on Friday.
  • Feliks July 21, 2010 at 11:44am
    Ohh, never mind, I just saw it in the previous post. It's so slow...
  • Feliks July 21, 2010 at 11:42am
    No I haven't seen the takeoff above. Can you link me please?
  • Feliks July 21, 2010 at 6:41am
    Haha, well maybe they land it on a grassy field and salvage whatever is left. But seriously, at over $1 million price tag, it's gotta have a way. Maybe they catch it by hand while driving on a pickup truck. ;)
  • T3
    Krzysztof Bosak July 21, 2010 at 6:17am
    I think it is not designed for landing ;-)
    Everybody knows this is the most dangerous phase, so why risk it?
  • Feliks July 21, 2010 at 5:58am
    Awesome stuff, it takes off with people pushing it and then goes on its own power. Landing gear is out, but how do they land it?
  • Patrick Egan July 17, 2010 at 5:29pm
    I'm not on the Zephyr team, but I believe we are attached to the same program as there is a picture of it on the wall in my building. (Sorry for the confusion)
  • Adrian Eves July 17, 2010 at 10:34am
    Well, I've got to fly back to Blighty now and leave the others to it. Suffice to say all is going well. In answer to a couple of earlier questions, yes we have streaming video but it's not very interesting in the stratosphere! The payload capacity is a significant portion of the 50ish kilograms.
    Also in response to the article in the Register, we're not misrepresenting anything by going to Yuma, the higher sun angle here is offset by longer days in other latitudes so it's not the main advantage.There is however supposedly more days of slack winds etc with little low level cloud, which is important for launch. This is the first flight of a new airframe so we're using the best location. Once airborne of course Zephyr is above the weather. There is an excellent launch video which should be released soon (the one above is from a couple of years back).
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  • Patrick Egan July 17, 2010 at 9:13am
    I've been working out at YPG for the last several months, but I've not seen this one fly. Someday I'll have to fill you in on what I like to call Yumastan!
  • Moderator
    Gary Mortimer July 17, 2010 at 9:05am
    Its a British record attempt Pat, theres method!! Although they are along way from real beer of course. No doubt once its all over there will be a pint or two raised on Salisbury Plain.
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