US Army drone crashes hours ahead of breaking flight duration record
An unmanned, solar-powered drone was hours from breaking the world record for the longest-duration flight before it suddenly crashed.
Armed with solar panels, weighing less than 75 kilograms and with a wingspan of 25 meters, the Zephyr 8 model, developed by Airbus, is designed to fly for long periods of time with no crew. A test flight conducted by the US Army lasted 64 days and would have toppled the current world record for the longest flight if it stayed airborne for just another day.
The Zephyr smashed the previous record for drone flight duration in July, which had been set in 2018 at a little under 26 days, as well as setting an altitude record for unmanned platforms of 76,100 feet.
It was chasing the 1959 duration record, set by Robert Timm and John Cook, who flew a Cessna 172 non-stop for 64 days, 22 hours and 19 minutes by refueling the aircraft from a moving truck, a trip that covered about 150,000 miles.
The drone went down on August 19, after ground controllers lost contact with the aircraft over Arizona. It had been flying over the southwestern United States at over 60,000 feet. Moments before it crashed into the desert it had just performed an S-shape maneuver at over 50 knots before it plummeted out of the sky, falling at 4,544 feet per minute, according to Simple Flying, an aviation news site.
“Following 64 days of stratospheric flight and the completion of numerous mission objectives, Zephyr experienced circumstances that ended its current flight campaign. No personal injury occurred,” a representative from the US Army Future Command’s Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing/Space Cross-Functional Team told military publication Task and Purpose.
“Our teams are currently analyzing more than 1500 hours of stratospheric mission data. The valuable experience from this prototype’s ultra long-endurance flight has proved to be a positive step toward the Army’s high-altitude platform goals. Once aircraft recovery and data analysis occur, more information will be available.”
The US and UK military have purchased Zephyrs, which act as High Altitude Platforms (HAPS) capable of capturing imagery and videos for surveillance purposes.
The drone may provide an alternative to satellites; it supports payloads across various frequencies from radar, infrared, to optical and lidar for various applications, and can also carry radar and signal jammers.
The Register has asked Airbus for comment.
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Saighdear
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Over Arizona, eh? Uhuh, ’nuff said.
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Jerry Krause
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Hi PSI Readers,
It seems apparent to me that the drone did not crash because control contact was lost for I read: “Moments before it crashed into the desert it had just performed an S-shape maneuver at over 50 knots before it plummeted out of the sky, falling at 4,544 feet per minute, according to Simple Flying, an aviation news site.”
Its 64 day test had proven it clearly could accomplish what it was designed to do and at the end it was being physically stressed by diving to acquire as speed of 50 knots which is close to the 4544 feet per minute speed at which it fell and the wings didn’t break as it performed an S-shape maneuvers as an experiment. And I suspect it crashed in an unpopulated region of Arizona. Some of us humans can discern reality from make believe.
Have a good day, Jerry
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Jerry Krause
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Hi PSI Readers,
This article is a report about a practical culmination of modern physical science and technology; so I believe this comment fits.
The Art Of Teaching (1950) by Gilbert Highet is a book I read shortly after I began my teaching career. And I read, according to Highet, that the first teacher of any note was Socrates. Some of you may recognize the name; but do you know what was unique about his teaching method? He only asked his students questions which they answered and maybe debated what a good answer was.
Do you know what happened to Socrates because his students evidently learned so much. I read that the city officials decided that Socrates had to die; but they gave him the choice of how this was to happen. You maybe have read, or heard, about this. But a fact is the answering of questions is the best learning method. This is based upon my experiences as a student, which never ends, as I believe in life long learning. But I read to gain information from the experiences of others as well as that which I try to observe about the environment in which I live. And I write to share my experiences with you and to ask you a few questions.
Many of you are probably aware that an Italian, Galileo Galilei, wrote a book, published in 1638 in the Italian language titled Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences, as translated from Italian to the English language. But I doubt if many of you are aware whom the original publisher was. He was Louis Elzevir, a Dutch publisher; who was obviously able to read Italian.
So I now ask: How did a Dutch publisher learn about Galileo’s book and want to publish it? The answer seems obvious if you have read that in 1632 that Galileo had written a previous book that was published in Italian by some unknown publisher. This previous book had created quite a stir which almost got Galileo burned to death by order of the Pope of the Catholic Church at that time.
But given this historical fact, another historical fact is that Galileo had been forbidden, by the Pope, to do any more WRITING. So, in Italy, the fact that Galileo had written a second book had to be kept a secret from the Pope. So I do not know how it was Elzevir went to Italy and learned about Galileo’s secret book. But based upon what I have read, I know he, immediately upon reading what Galileo had written, understood what Galileo had written and very much wanted to publish it. For one only has to read Elzevir’s “preface to the reader” to learn this information.
To share information I like to quote. So now I quote the first sentence of the translators’ (Henry Crew and Alfonso de Salvio of Galileo’s Italian to English 1914) preface: “For more than a century English speaking students have been placed in the anomalous position of learning Galilieo constantly referred to as the founder of modern physical science, without having any chance to read, into their own language, what Galileo himself has to say.”
Everyone should read Galileo’s book to learn Galileo wrote and what Elzevir wrote in the preface of Galileo’s book. However, I write this comment to give a reader less of an excuse to not to read what Elzevir wrote. For in the midst of his preface he wrote (as translated): “Remembering that the wisdom and goodness of the Creator are nowhere exhibited so well as in the heavens and celestial bodies, we can easily recognize the great merit of him who has brought these bodies to our knowledge and has, inspire of their almost infinite distance, rendered them easily visible. For according to the common saying, sight can teach more and with greater certainty in a single day than can precept even though repeated a thousand times; or, as another says, intuitive knowledge keeps pace with accurate definition.” This seems to be a summation of what Elzevir learned by reading Galileo’s book.
Socrates, the teacher, was sentenced to death by the city fathers who evidently did not like what his student’s had learned. Galileo escaped death by lying about he had concluded in his first book. And he still had the courage to write a forbidden second book. We all, who claim to be physical scientists and technologists, need to honor Galileo’s courage by reading his book in either Italian or English to actually see the gift (tool) he has given us who now live such comfortable lives because of the technical application of the physical science knowledge gained by Galileo and the physical scientists and technologists who have followed.
Have a good day, Jerry
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JerrY Krause
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Hi PSI Readers,
PSI, as you know is a unique website as it does not censure any Ideas. And it has found a method to limit the comments whose efforts are purely to limit access to a few of the most recent comments. This happens NATURELY enough because of the volume of the readers who make comments about their uncensured ideas as this comment does.
Wildfires Today (https://wildfiretoday.com) is a great website about wildfires which severely censures comments which do not directly have anything to do with wildfires. An article directly related to this PSI article is (https://wildfiretoday.com/2022/08/18/mapping-wildfires-from-70000-feet/). And both articles report inexpensive new ways of directly gathering continuous data about the circulation of a portion of stratospheric ozone system and the tropospheric weather below which hasn’t been available before. These balloons and drones also allow, if instruments are pointed upward as well as downward, to measure the downward radiation (both visible solar and invisible solar IR radiation). About which is generally considered at this time to not be influenced by cloud at the higher altitudes at the same time
For mesospheric clouds are known to exist (https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/80217/polar-mesospheric-clouds-south-pacific-ocean) but are very difficult to actually observe. So, we have no observed idea how they might influence our weather as tropospheric clouds do. So, it seems that little consideration has been given to the possible source of these observed clouds. Which, just because they have been difficult to observe, does not necessary mean that they are RARE.
Just trying to give someone and heads up.
Have a good day, Jerry
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