Professional Engineering

Taking a punt on a quite literally blue-skies technology is not for the faint-hearted. There are more unknowns than knowns, and opportunities to fail more readily present themselves than the promise of success. Such a venture means taking risks. 

This is what Qinetiq did when it developed the Zephyr unmanned aerial vehicle, a solar-powered flight of fantasy that has broken records and won awards for the boldness of its engineering.

Chris Kelleher is chief designer of high-altitude endurance unmanned aerial vehicles at the defence firm. He believes that engineers don’t take enough risks and that promising technologies are sometimes left by the wayside as a result. 

“What really worries me,” he says, “is how much technology fails to be developed because no one sees the value of it. There’s a huge aversion to risk. With the Zephyr, there was very significant risk until we built-up confidence in the design.

“But it’s been a hugely productive experience to employ new technology and make it work. We run the risk of becoming Luddites if we stick with the same aeroplanes and the same technology every time.”

The origins of the Zephyr, which smashed the world record for flight endurance in 2010, lie back in Qinetiq’s pre-privatisation history when it was the government’s Defence Evaluation and Research Agency. Kelleher says: “We were doing experimental work with satellites and sub-systems in about 2000. We were obviously familiar with the many military communications satellites that provide services all over the world. We asked ourselves whether there was a better way of doing that job.

“One of the concepts we were looking at was whether an aircraft could exist permanently in the stratosphere. But the technology simply wasn’t available, in terms of the power needed, for example.”

That concept began to be developed further, however. The powers that be planned to float Qinetiq on the stock market as part of its privatisation and wanted the fledgling defence company to make a big splash. As part of the celebrations, the idea was for Qinetiq to sponsor a manned altitude world-record attempt in a balloon. The aim was to soar to 132,000ft. But a problem arose. How would the record attempt be photographed for posterity at altitude?

Various solutions were mulled over, including launching a daughter balloon with equipment to capture the record attempt or using an inflatable arm. But the best option was thought to be a small, high-altitude aircraft that could carry cameras and video equipment. So work started on developing the Zephyr, alongside a rival concept that would have seen a rocket deployed to take pictures.

Kelleher says: “The aeroplane had to be very light and also able to function in extreme cold. It had to be very reliable. So this came back to the background of many members of the team. They’d worked on small experimental satellites. They were in touch with much of the best technology in the world – and they knew how to develop things we hadn’t got.”

The concept plane produced by the team of engineers at Qinetiq would have been tethered to the balloon, circling it in the manner of a toy aircraft pinned to the ceiling of a model shop. “It carried a broadcast video camera and a digital stills camera,” says Kelleher. “The intention was to feed pictures directly to the BBC from the aircraft, looking at the balloon throughout the high-altitude record attempt.”