The Boeing SolarEagle (Vulture II) was a proposed High-Altitude Long Endurance (HALE)

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...

solar Solar may refer to: Astronomy * Of or relating to the Sun ** Solar telescope, a special purpose telescope used to observe the Sun ** A device that utilizes solar energy (e.g. "solar panels") ** Solar calendar, a calendar whose dates indicate t ...

- electric spy plane developed by Boeing Phantom Works.Haddox, Chris
"SolarEagle (Vulture II) Backgrounder"
''Boeing Phantom Works'', September 2010. Retrieved: 18 October 2010. The proposed aircraft had a

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

of 393.7 feet (120 meters), and was intended to remain airborne for up to five years at a time without needing to land. It had 20 motors of the same type as the Qinetiq Zephyr designed by

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public university, public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is ...

. Boeing was awarded an $89 million contract by

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adv ...

's Vulture program, with Boeing covering the remainder. It was slated to make its first flight in 2014, but in 2012 the SolarEagle project was cancelled and

's Vulture program was refocused on advancing

photovoltaic Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially us ...

and

energy storage Energy storage is the capture of energy produced at one time for use at a later time to reduce imbalances between energy demand and energy production. A device that stores energy is generally called an accumulator or battery. Energy comes in ...

technologies.

References

Unmanned aerial vehicles of the United States SolarEagle Solar-powered aircraft 2010s United States military reconnaissance aircraft High-altitude and long endurance aircraft Propeller aircraft Cancelled military aircraft projects of the United States {{UAV-stub