It's Not Flying, and It Didn't Land at the Target

The 5-kg, 2-meter wingspan UAV didn't make it to land in western Ireland as hoped; and it hadn't been seen or heard from since it was 480 miles out from its launch; and it's for certain out of fuel -- so the project team of retired engineers and enthusiasts has admitted defeat, and started planning for next year, when weather conditions may make another attempt to cross the Atlantic feasible.

Maynard Hill, 76, of Silver Spring (MD), the leader of the group that launched the Spirit of Butts Farm (shown in a Tweed Cottrel photo) from St. John's Newfoundland, said simply, "No airplane," and left a small group of reporters, to take a nap. Hill still holds world model records for distance (775 miles), duration (33hrs, 39min, 15seconds), and altitude (26,919, set in 1970!).

The little private UAV was launched on the 20th, on its planned 40-hour, nearly 1900-mile journey to Ireland. It was last sighted on radar some 480 miles out.

The team found out late in the week that the area where the one-gallon-wonder had disappeared was having some bad weather, when their balsa-framed craft disappeared.

Record-holder Hill, the first-ever recipient of the Howard McEntee Award, had built a fleet of four aircraft for the attempt. [Question: If one little plane can cross the Atlantic in forty hours, how long would it take four airplanes?]. This latest attempt, the last one feasible this year, was the third try. The first two had problems in the initial portions of their flights, and wound up in Davey Jones's locker. This flight was well-stabilized, and could well have accomplished its goal, had not the weather closed in.

There's a plastic pouch as a payload, with a letter that was intended for the finders to sign and return. Hill joked, "It would be fun if somebody found it." He reckoned the message could read something like, "You didn't make it."

FMI: www.flightlines.com