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Unmanned plane tries transatlantic record

14 Aug 1998

The first transatlantic crossing by an unmanned aircraft will hopefully take place on Sunday 16 August, 79 years after John Alcock and Whitten Brown achieved the same feat in a former World War One bomber. Researchers from the University of Washington hope that the three Aerosonde planes will take off from Newfoundland in Canada and land 24 hours and 3200 km later in the Outer Hebrides in the UK. The aircraft are part of a new breed of air-borne instrument which scientists intend to use for atmospheric studies.

Each plane has a 3m wingspan and weighs 13.1 kg. During normal operations the craft will measure temperature, humidity and pressure over the ocean. At a cost of just $25000 each, the planes could dramatically cut the costs of gathering such information.

Meanwhile, during a test flight in Hawaii, NASA’s Pathfinder-Plus – a remote controlled propeller driven plane – reached a record altitude of more than 23km (80000 ft). Unlike Aerosonde, Pathfinder-Plus is solar powered, giving it the potential to stay aloft for several months at a time. The craft is a prototype for a larger plane called Centurion which has a wing span of 62m and intended to fly at an altitude of 30.5 km. Scientists on the project believe this will allow similar aircraft to act as stratospheric satellites at a fraction of the cost of space-based observation platforms.

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