Unique Airbus Zephyr drone crashed after 64 days of uninterrupted flight 24 hours before the historical record

Airbus's Zephyr drone terminated a flight that lasted 64 days.

What we know

Unfortunately, the drone failed to land and crashed in Arizona. The last flight, which lasted 64 days, was the longest ever and allowed Airbus to test a modification of the Zephyr 8.

The drone runs on solar power, which is enough to stay in the air for several dozen days. It made its final flight on June 15. On Aug. 19, air traffic controllers lost contact with the drone. The Zephyr normally flies at an average altitude of 20 km, but on August 19 it did an S-route at an altitude of 15 km over the Arizona desert, after which it ran into problems.

Zephyr reached speeds of 100 km/h and began to lose altitude rapidly. The vertical rate of descent reached nearly 1,400 meters per minute. A spokesman for Airbus said that the drone "encountered circumstances" that caused the termination of the flight. Now experts are analyzing the data obtained during 64 days of operation of the UAV.

By the way, the drone lacked a day to set a historical record for the duration of the flight. Now it belongs to the Cessna 12 Skyhawk aircraft - 64 days and 22 hours.

Source: Simple Flying

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