Airbus Defence and Space (www.space.airbus.com) unveiled the new Zephyr S HAPS (High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite) to the world at the Farnborough International Airshow.

This is the first production aircraft in the Zephyr programme; the previous units were R&D prototypes.

Zephyr is a solar-electric unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), running exclusively on solar power, that will cruise in the stratosphere, above the weather and conventional air traffic.

It is intended to provide affordable local satellite-like communications and Earth observation services. Airbus also announced the opening of Zephyr production facilities in Farnborough; this is the first serial HAPS assembly line world-wide.

“Not quite an aircraft and not quite a satellite”, but incorporating aspects of both, the Zephyr has a wing spam of 25m but weighs less than 75kg. It is intended to operate at a height of 70,000ft (21km), previously used only by Concorde, the U2 and the SR-71 Blackbird.

Starting next month, Airbus will be flying the Zephyr S from its new operating site at Wyndham airfield in Western Australia.

This has been chosen as the first launch and recovery site for the Zephyr UAV due mainly to its largely unrestricted airspace and reliable weather.