APPLICATIONS

As can be expected, an obvious customer of the Zephyr is the military, for surveillance and reconnaissance, but there are countless applications for civil use as well. Uses can extend to maritime security, environmental monitoring, geographic border sweeps and fire observation, as well as power-grid-and pipeline inspection, not to mention offering communications and internet connectivity in remote regions.

While, as yet, there are no international regulations governing UAVS, Airbus is working with relevant agencies to ensure future regulatory standards are met.

TO DATE, ZEPHYR can fly autonomously and cut off from operator communications for three and a half days. It’s programmed with three mission profiles: a primary, a secondary and a ‘get me home’ profile, which instructs the craft to return to within the ‘line of sight’ of its operator. Turnaround time between missions is then quick and easy, entailing a visual inspection, battery change, swap-out of payload and relaunch.

Whether or not you’re comfortable with this programme, it’s here to stay, and it appears that soon, we’ll have unmanned craft more than 20 km high in the sky, watching, monitoring and photographing. Perhaps, at the very least, we can all hope for improved internet coverage… Then again, maybe that’s aiming too high.