Zephyr®: the new standard for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Zephyr® is our high altitude long endurance (HALE) unmanned air vehicle (UAV) that can support payloads for surveillance or communications. It therefore provides a cost effective and persistent capability to collect or disseminate high quality data across wide areas.

Zephyr® has broken through existing boundaries of unmanned flight – and in more ways than one. In July 2010 it secured a place in history by smashing the world record for the longest duration unmanned flight, flying for 14 days and 22 minutes and reaching an altitude of over 70,000 feet. This record promises to be the first of many because Zephyr® has the potential for uninterrupted flights lasting several months.

Zephyr’s® extraordinary in-flight endurance derives from several pioneering design developments

• Very lightweight Solar panels power the aircraft during the day and charge its Lithium-Sulfer batteries for night flying
• A unique QinetiQ propeller design for high altitude flight
• The all-new QinetiQ wing design provides high lift and exceptionally low drag for efficient flight at high altitude.
• Ultra-lightweight carbon-fibre construction means the 22.5m wingspan Zephyr weighs around 50kg
• A QinetiQ-developed bespoke autopilot navigates between waypoints, removing the need for permanent manual operation

Silent in flight, environmentally friendly and launched by hand with no complicated launching mechanisms, Zephyr® is revolutionising the thinking behind UAV operations.