British jet breaks record for longest flight – with enough time for EVERY episode of Top Gear, Love Island & Strictly

Scottish Sun

02-05-2025

The Zephyr is a drone-like aircraft with a wingspan of 85ft, and weighs just 75kg
ARE WE THERE JET?
ARE WE THERE JET? British jet breaks record for longest flight – with enough time for EVERY episode of Top Gear, Love Island & Strictly
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A BRITISH-made stealth jet has broken the world record for the longest continuous flight, spending 67 days in the sky.
That's the equivalent of 1,608 hours - enough time to watch every episode of Top Gear, Love Island and Strictly Come Dancing that has ever aired in the UK.
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The unmanned plane, known as Aalto Zephyr, flew for more than two months
Credit: Airbus
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The Zephyr is a drone-like aircraft with a wingspan of 85ft, and weighs just 75kg
Credit: AALTO
In fact, it's more than enough time, with Top Gear boasting 518 hours' worth of content across 33 seasons, Love Island's 390 hours and Strictly with a whopping 635 hours.
A total of 1,543 hours.
The unmanned plane, known as Aalto Zephyr, flew for more than two months from Kenya to Australia before being plunged into the Indian Ocean.
The flight beat a record held by two American pilots for over 50 years.
In 1959, Robert Timm and John Cook flew a Cessna Skyhawk continuously for 64 days and 22 hours in Nevada.
That record has now been bested by a British jet, built by Airbus at its facilities in Farnborough, Hampshire.
British defence company QinetiQ originally developed the project, before selling it off to Airbus in 2013.
The Zephyr is a drone-like aircraft with a wingspan of 85ft, and weighs just 75kg.
It has been hailed for its abilities for near 'endless flight', with it using solar power to charge its propellers during the day.
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At night, the craft glides and loses altitude slightly as the batteries drain, until the morning sun recharges them.
The Zephyr can operate as a spy plane, carrying powerful cameras and sensors for Earth surveillance.
But it can also provide 4G and 5G communications, acting like a mobile mast in the sky.
It is designed to fly above 60,000ft, making it well suited for delivering communications to remote areas.
The aircraft's longest previous mission was a 64-day flight in 2022.
"With this new world-record flight, we have pushed the boundaries again for the burgeoning HAPS industry and aviation globally with a solar-powered, stratospheric aircraft," Aalto CEO Hughes Boulnois said in a statement.
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The facility is adjacent to Farnborough airport
Credit: AALTO