AIRBUS’S ZEPHYR S
60 days of nonstop flight—and counting!
It may look like the biggest slowflight RC model you’ve ever seen, but Airbus’s Zephyr S is actually a HighAltitude Platform Station, and it’s setting records for the longest uncrewed flight ever. As this is being written, it is still airborne after over two months in flight! Launched by the U.S. Army on June
15, 2022 from Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, Zephyr S has solar panels on top of its 82-foot wing that power its two electric motors, each of which drives a two-blade propeller. The solar panels also recharge its 53 pounds of lithium-sulphur batteries so Zephyr S can continue to fly at night.
Controlled via satellite communication from a ground station, the aircraft can take off and land autonomously but also be flown line of sight. It was designed for long-term reconnaissance missions, and this record-breaking flight is testing the Zephyr’s energy storage, battery longevity, solar panel efficiency, and ability to stay on a prescribed station.
The 136-pound Zephyr S is built out of carbon-fiber composite materials, and it has upward cranked wingtips.
Its T-tail configuration provides aerodynamic stability and flight control. Between missions, it can land, be reequipped with new payloads, and then redeployed.
Zephyr S is intended to fly in the stratosphere, the second layer of Earth’s atmosphere and above the airspace commonly used by other aircraft. Although Zephyr S is intended to act as a “pseudo satellite” or a high-flying cell tower, Airbus notes that it can also carry various payloads, including infrared cameras, radars, early warning equipment, Lidar laser imaging systems, and automatic identification system transponders to see what other aircraft are in the area. It can also transmit realtime imagery, voice, and data to areas covering 362 square miles. The U.S. Army has not released information on what payloads—if any—the Zephyr S is currently carrying.
Whenever it lands, Zephyr S will have made history, but there’s no doubt that the next time it is launched, it will continue to rewrite the record books. J