On Sunday, QinetiQ proudly announced its Zephyr aircraft had managed to continuously fly for 83 hours and 37 minutes, thus breaking, by far some might add, the world record which was set back in 2001 by Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk.

The Zephyr, with a weight of no more than 70 pounds, was designed to be launched by hand. The way it works is it uses the solar power some amorphous silicon arrays placed on the aircraft’s wings produce. Obviously enough, it can fly during the night as well, as it also uses rechargeable lithium sulfur batteries which are replenished throughout the day.

According to QinetiQ officials, this was the Zephyr’s second big accomplishment, as last year, the aircraft flew for 54 hours nonstop.

Unfortunately, the two flights did not correspond to the set of rules set by The World Air Sports Federation, which handles all air sports and aeronautical world records; this means they are very likely to remain unofficial.

According to Simon Bennett, managing director of QinetiQ's Applied Technologies, this unofficial record represents an important step towards introducing the aircraft into several major fields, such as surveillance and communications. Given the obvious capabilities of the machine, the range of its uses is quite extensive and it is only a matter of time until the aircraft will be fully exploited.

While up to this point the Zephyr project has been funded by the U.K. Ministry of Defence, the recently completed demonstration was co-funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.