Solar-powered US Army spy-drone breaks record with 40 days in flight

A US Army drone keeps beating its own flying record and has now been soaring for over 40 days.

The Zephyr is a solar-powered drone with an 82-foot wingspan.

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It was hand launched in Arizona on June 15.

Each minute that goes by it’s breaking its own longest drone flight record.

The Zephyr has been designed to stay in the stratosphere for long periods of time so the test has been a success.

The stratosphere is the second layer in the Earth’s atmosphere and is usually used for things like supersonic flight.

According to Breaking Defense, the previous record for continuous drone flight was 26 days.

A US Army spokesperson told PopSci that the drone is still in the air.

This is the Zephyr’s first flight on 2022 but the craft has been tested out before as the Army make necessary modifications.

In a statement about this recent flight the Army said that the drone has “demonstrated Zephyr’s energy storage capacity, battery longevity, solar panel efficiency and station-keeping abilities that will further the Army’s goal to implement ultra-long endurance stratospheric UAS capabilities”.

The current drone flight is said to be its first time over international airspace.

It’s also the first time the drone has flown over water.

Michael Monteleone, director of an Army group called the APNT/Space CFT, said: “Ultra-long endurance unmanned platforms have the potential to provide significant military capabilities and enhanced confidence as part of the Army’s diversified multi-layered architecture.”

The flight is going so well another one is planned in the coming weeks.