The Zephyr High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE), built by QinetiQ, clocked up 54 hours in the air during trials at the US Military's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

That’s 24 hours more than the FAI official record of 30 hours 24 minutes, set by Northrop Grumman's RQ-4A Global Hawk on 22 March 2001. However because there was no FAI official present at White Sands it may not stand as an official world record.

The Zephyr, developed with funding from the Ministry of Defence, is an ultra-lightweight carbon-fibre aircraft. It has a wingspan of up to 18 metres but weighs just 30kg.

It flies by day on solar power generated by paper-thin silicon covering the wings. At the same time rechargeable lithium-sulphur batteries are recharged up by the sun to power it through the night.

During the trials the same aircraft was flown twice while carrying a surveillance payload – first for 54 hours to a maximum altitude of 58,355 feet, and then for 33 hours 43 minutes to a maximum altitude of 52,247 feet.

Paul Davey, Zephyr business development director at QinetiQ, said: “Both flights were achieved in the face of thunderstorms and debilitating heat in the hostile environment of the New Mexico high desert in the summertime.”

There are hopes the Zephyr can be used for both civil and military earth observation and communications. Sadly as yet there are no plans to use this technology on manned aircraft, but maybe one day all aircraft will be made this way.

For now, it’s an achievement: they can make a plane that flies without a pilot and without fuel, for more than two days and two nights.

Photo courtesy of QinetiQ.