A British solar-powered plane has shattered the world record for the longest flight without anyone on board, Next Energy News reports. It's also got a pretty long name, as befits a government project: the Zephyr solar-powered high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicle. The flight was conducted at the US Army's Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona.

The report said that the plane, Zephyr-6, remained in the air for 82 hours and 37 minutes. It flew through the night on batteries it had recharged from sunlight during the day. QinetiQ Group PLC used the Zephyr-6 flight as a demo for the U.S. military. The company claimed that it broke the official world record of 30 hours and 24 minutes set by the U.S. robot plane Global Hawk in 2001 and the Zephyr's own previous record of 54 hours achieved last year. For a video, check out the BBC News report.