Unmanned Aircraft Series Sets Record for Mission Hours Flown in One Week

Northrop Grumman Corporation's High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) series, which includes the U.S. Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk, set a new record for mission hours flown in one week, logging 665 hours flying operational and exercise missions during the week ending Feb. 23.

In 2013, Global Hawk flew an average of 433.8 hours a week. The weekly record of 665 hours set in February 2014 is 53 percent above last year's average. That is the equivalent of almost four Global Hawks in the air around the clock for an entire week.

The HALE UAS series have exceeded 110,000 total flight hours supporting diverse global missions. More than 87 percent of those missions were for the Air Force, others were for the U.S. Navy, NASA and other customers.

Read more