Drone maker Skydweller Aero asked a very simple question a few years ago: Why bother landing? The company aims to create a sustained-flying aircraft, an airliner-sized UAV that harnesses solar panels to drive electric propellers on its wings. Well, the drone’s latest test flight (part of a full-blown US Navy exercise, no less) proved to be a heroic battle against the force of nature, pushing the Skydweller to the limits of what even an aircraft can do. Although it lost that battle, the brave drone nearly doubled its scheduled flight time, demonstrating just how capable solar drones are proving to be. In total, Skydweller flew for 192 hours and 14 minutes, almost exactly eight days. Alas, the storm ultimately prevailed, and the noble flyer now resides at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.
There are a few ways in which no landing can be useful. One is to become a military surveillance asset that never has to leave the area of operations. The Navy likes the idea and has been working with Skydweller Aero to develop this capability for the past few years. Fleet Exercise 26 began in the Gulf on April 26 and gave the Skydweller drone a chance to show what it could do. All went well, the exercise went off without a hitch and Skydweller surveyed many objects for four consecutive days.
Then the weather turned bad. While the Navy ships departed, a cold front prevented Skydweller from flying to Stennis International Airport in Mississippi. The drone had already been flying for half a week; Can it possibly stay there much longer? With no other way to get home, the 747-sized plane had no choice but to try.
solar vs storm
Skydweller was forced south for the next few days, breaking his personal best records for flight time along the way. Finally on May 3 it seemed that the storm had come to an end. It was now or never. The courageous aviator headed for home and hoped that the weather would remain fine.
It did not happen. Angered that something would remain in it for so long, Akash took out all his anger on the UAV. It attacked Skydweller with high winds and truly terrifying turbulence, apparently ten times worse than normal. Even after all this pushing and shoving, the drone stood firm and suffered no mechanical or structural failures. Remote pilots still had full control of the aircraft. Maybe, just maybe, it could actually do it!
This couldn’t happen. While the drone was physically fine, the power consumption to maintain stable flight drained the battery too much. The poor man lost his electricity. There was no other option but to bring it to a controlled ditch in the bay near Cancún, to be buried at sea eight days after last touching the earth’s surface.
As far as the company is concerned, it seems pretty excited about what this means. Prototypes get destroyed in testing, so this is not at all unexpected for the engineering team. On the positive side, Skydweller stayed up as long as it did and proved it can survive a storm without falling apart. Anyway, the company was already working on its next-generation prototype, so there will be more soon. Probably for more than eight days.
