One year after having demonstrated the 81-hour continuous solar-powered flight that is still the current world record in flight endurance for all aircrafts < 50kg total mass, the AtlantikSolar UAV has completed its next milestone by demonstrating the first-ever fully autonomous (from launch to landing) solar-powered perpetual flight with significant payload (Color + Thermal Camera) in a 26-hour Search-and-Rescue (SaR) mission.

Two weeks after demonstrating AtlantikSolar’s first 24-hour flight, the fixed-wing team of ETH Zurich’s Autonomous Systems Lab has reached another milestone: 81.5 hours and 2316 km of continuous flight for its 6.8kg AtlantikSolar 2 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (AS-2). This breaks the flight endurance world record in its class.

The AtlantikSolar Unmanned Aerial Vehicle took off on June 30th, 2015 at 11:14 o’clock to attempt the “holy grail” of solar-powered flight: the crossing of a full day-night cycle on solar power alone. More than 28 hours later, on July 1st at 15:35, the aircraft landed safely and with fully recharged batteries, thus showing AtlantikSolar’s long-endurance flight capability. This is of significant interest for large-scale disaster support, industrial inspection or meteorological observation missions, especially in the compact form of a hand-launchable 7kg UAV such as AtlantikSolar.