It will hang in the sky for weeks: the USA has created a heavy drone powered by solar batteries

The test flight of the Skydweller drone powered by solar batteries has been successfully completed in the USA. The goal – to create a drone that will be in the air for weeks, writes Forbes.

Although the Skydweller flight (literally — Sky dweller) lasted only 22.5 hours, the goal of the project, which is funded by the US Navy, is ambitious: to create a patrol drone that would be powered by solar panels during the day and batteries at night.

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“The road to creating solar-powered aircraft with virtually unlimited endurance has been a long one, littered with far-fetched fragments of failed projects. The Navy finally is approaching a major new opportunity that could revolutionize its long-standing long-haul missions and usher in a whole new realm of commercial aviation,” – the publication says.

Skydweller is made of lightweight carbon fiber, has a wingspan of 72 meters and weighs 2,550 kilograms. This is less than many light aircraft, with a payload of up to 360 kg. It is important that the plane has strong and at the same time flexible wings, which allows it to withstand even difficult aerodynamic conditions.

In the past, such giants as NASA, Boeing, DARPA (the research department at Pentagon), Google and Facebook.

According to the designers of Skydweller, during the 22-hour flight they collected all the data necessary to confirm the simulation results. The next phase of testing will include flights with sensors and communications that the aircraft will use to work with the Navy.