Formtech is Proud to be part of QinetiQ's Zephyr HALE UAV Longest
Un-Manned Flight Record
UPDATE: 23/12/2010 Zephyr Records Ratified by the FAI:
• Absolute duration record Unmanned - The longest
flying UAV in the world (beating Global Hawk’s record by a factor of 11)
at 336 hours 22 minutes 8 seconds
• Class Record UAV (50-500kg) – Altitude: At a
height of 21,562m (which is also 5,000ft higher than Global Hawk, albeit
in a different category).
• Class Record UAV (50-500kg) – Duration: As
above
DATE: 07/09/2010
Formtech Composites capability to offer the complete solution from
design brief to production has taken a step into the UAV sector of
aerospace with manufacturing support on the
QinetiQ Zephyr
project.
This Unmanned Aerial Vehicle which operates within the HALE (High
Altitude, Long Endurance) sector has successfully been launched at the
US Army Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. To date this UAV was
launched on July 9th 2010 and is awaiting confirmation of it’s new
record with a flight time of 14 days (to be confirmed by FAI). If
this is confirmed it will place the Zephyr in the record books by
quadrupling it’s own previous unofficial result of 82 hours.
This 22.5m wingspan UAV is launched by hand and at little more than 50kg
it has an exceptional range of delivery and retrieval options. It
operates by day on solar power generated by amorphous silicon arrays and
by night it is powered by rechargeable lithium-sulphur batteries that
are recharged during the day by the solar energy gathered.
Formtech Composites have provided cost sensitive solutions for the
airframe components. Working in carbon fibre from QinetiQ’s
original designs the items were produced to specification and adapted as
new innovations were delivered.
Communication was the key to this project with regular adaptations and
meetings throughout the process. Something which Formtech
Composites specialises in. Mark Preston, Managing
Director of Formtech Composites. “We are proud to offer our clients a
one to one drawing board to runway solution by maintaining a high level
of communication and contact throughout the process. Our results
speak for themselves; in just two years of business we are able to
supply such a high end client as QinetiQ.”
Production Manager, Stuart Banyard “We are absolutely delighted at the
high level of results for Zephyr and wish to pass our congratulations to
all the HALE Team at QinetiQ”.
Zephyr offers a real long term solution with its zero emissions and long
range ability. Defence solutions include surveillance,
communications relay and mapping and Civil solutions such as border
control, crop and forestry fire monitoring and fisheries protection.
See a video of the
Zephyr on YouTube.
For more information please contact:
Mark Preston, managing Director, Formtech Composites Limited.
Mark.preston@formtech-composites.com
QinetiQ Group Limited – Press Officer, Douglas Millard
dmillard@qinetiq.co.uk
For more news on Formtech please go to our
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