A solar-powered drone that was being evaluated by the United States military got crashed this month in Arizona, after unendingly flying for over 2 months. The drone, Zephyr S had spent in total sixty four days within the air and had come close to breaking the record for the longest flight ever achieved. The unmanned aircraft was launched as a part of a persistent airborne sensor experiment by the US army. It was developed by aerospace company Airbus the drone flew high within the stratosphere and picked up crucial knowledge throughout its flight.

HIGHLIGHTS
The drone named Zephyr S had spent in total sixty four days within the air
Drone lose contact with ground controllers on August 19 and was coming down 
It closely broke a 63-year-old record for the longest recorded flight

However, the drone did lose the contact with ground controllers on August 19 and was coming down after getting crashed before it actually got lost. Previously, Zephyr S was Airbus Defense and Space team, but whereas those long-distance flights had lasted for over two weeks of time period, this point of time the drone had achieved a powerful flight period of over sixty four days.

While on the other hand, the drone's flight suddenly got ended, the time spent it spent within the air had not went in vain. The developers of the drone and the US Army had collected data from the aircraft whereas it had cruise the stratosphere. Recently, the team has been analyzing the voluminous data and would utilize it for research purposes.

As per an Airbus representative, “following sixty four days of stratospheric flight and therefore the completion of various mission objectives Zephyr had experienced circumstances that had ended its current flight. No personal injury was occurred. Our groups have been presently analyzing over 1500 hours of stratospheric mission data. The valuable experience from this prototype's ultra-long endurance flight has verified to be a positive step towards the Army's high-altitude platform goals.”

Well, with a wingspan of seventy five feet and weighing 166 pounds, the ultra-light aircraft would cruise at high altitudes for extended periods. It was equipped with solar panels on its back side which would power it throughout its high-endurance flights, by absorbing daylight throughout the day to let the drone going both throughout the daytime as well as at night.

Zephyr cruises remain high within the stratosphere and remains above the terrestrial weather. This would give it with lots of radiation from the sun for its long flight. It closely broke a 63-year-old record for the longest recorded flight which was recently command by two pilots who flew for sixty four days and twenty two hours.

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