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

http://www.qinetiq.com/global.html

But "remote manipulators" in the oil spill are still being run by real human beings "in need of a 10 minute break every 60 minutes, a full nights sleep, and 3 meals a day, etc...", they're just not on the sea bottom (I live in New Orleans and have been on the rigs and seen these in operation), just as the drones flying in Afghanistan are flown remotely by human pilots. I'm not saying many operations wouldn't be more efficient without human operators involved (like long flights) but until we develop computers that are small enough and can handle all of the "fuzzy" logic of the human brain I think there will still be a place for human pilots and operators. The tools are just extensions of ourselves.

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Moderator

Gary Mortimer July 25, 2010 at 10:46am

UAS or Robots are force multipliers. They allow us to do a little bit more.
Kevin Breen July 25, 2010 at 10:35am

But "remote manipulators" in the oil spill are still being run by real human beings "in need of a 10 minute break every 60 minutes, a full nights sleep, and 3 meals a day, etc...", they're just not on the sea bottom (I live in New Orleans and have been on the rigs and seen these in operation), just as the drones flying in Afghanistan are flown remotely by human pilots. I'm not saying many operations wouldn't be more efficient without human operators involved (like long flights) but until we develop computers that are small enough and can handle all of the "fuzzy" logic of the human brain I think there will still be a place for human pilots and operators. The tools are just extensions of ourselves.
Moderator

Gary Mortimer July 23, 2010 at 8:19pm

Yeah they are needed right now to get around regs!! Hence OPVs that are popping up.
Kevin Breen 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.
Moderator

Gary Mortimer 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.
simonl 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)
AVS July 23, 2010 at 6:46am

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
Grahame Algar July 23, 2010 at 6:43am

Fantastic news, now all they have to do is land!!

Looking forward to seeing much more coverage.

Gray
Moderator

Gary Mortimer 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.
Moderator

Gary Mortimer July 23, 2010 at 6:31am

Its coming back

http://www.suasnews.com/2010/07/470/after-14-nights-in-the-air-qine...

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