A TEAM of engineers in the North-East has started work on a record-breaking plane able to remain in the air for five years.

Led by Professor Barrie Mecrow, the Newcastle University team has won a major contract to create a motor for the US-based Boeing SolarEagle.

Developed under the Vulture II project, joint funded by the US government and Boeing, SolarEagle will be a 120-metre wing span, solar-powered, unmanned plane.

It will be able to remain in the air continuously for five years, feeding back data from the skies, and it will be the job of the Newcastle University team to keep the propellers turning.

The team is developing a motor that will be four times more efficient than a conventional aircraft engine, while being able to operate at temperatures lower than the coldest arctic winter.

Professor Mecrow, head of the university’s Centre for Advanced Electrical Drives, said: “This plane will have the longest wingspan ever. The motor will have to be powerful enough to drive the propellers to get this gigantic plane off the ground, while still being super efficient and incredibly lightweight.

“The work is particularly challenging because the plane will be flying at a height of more than 60,000ft where temperatures can be below minus 60 degrees and conventional systems stop working.”

This is the second time the team has played a part in making aviation history.

Last year, they played a key role in the development of QinetiQ’s Zephyr, a smaller unmanned aerial vehicle, which successfully completed a world-record, twoweek non-stop flight powered only by energy from the sun.

Smashing all endurance records for an unpiloted vehicle, the Zephyr was the culmination of many years of work. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is contributing $89m or £56m to the Vulture II programme, with Boeing providing additional investment.

The programme, which will culminate with a demonstration flight, is due to be completed in early 2014 and the Newcastle team hopes to have the first two prototypes of the motors ready to test in the next six months.

Prof Mecrow said: “We are building on half a century of experience that grew around the region’s heavy industry.”