Boeing SolarEagle

The Boeing SolarEagle, also called Vulture II, was a proposed High-Altitude Long Endurance unmanned aerial vehicle, a solar-electric spy plane developed by Boeing Phantom Works. The proposed aircraft had a wingspan of 393.7 feet, or 120 metres, and was intended to stay airborne for up to five years at a time without landing. It was to use 20 motors of the same type as the Qinetiq Zephyr, which was designed by Newcastle University. Boeing was awarded an 89 million dollar contract by DARPA's Vulture programme, with Boeing covering the remainder, and the aircraft was slated to make its first flight in 2014. In 2012 the SolarEagle project was cancelled and the Vulture programme was refocused on advancing photovoltaic and energy storage technologies.