Making its way south of the equator and towards French Polynesia on 09 February local date (10 February NZ time) was the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) unmanned Northrop Grumman Global Hawk RQ4A "Nasa 872".
Deployed from the Drysden Flight Research Facility at Edwards Air Force Base, California, the Global Hawk departed at 1437/09FEB UTC and climbed to an altitude of FL650 (65000ft!) flying in a west-southwest direction to a point well south of the Big Island of Hawaii then south towards Tahiti. It then retraced its steps at a leisurely 350kts back to Edwards with an estimated arrival time almost 24 hours after its departure!
The RQ4A is one of two aircraft sourced from the United States Air Force and are being used to sample various atmospheric conditions at high altitude.
Certainly an interesting "vehicle"!
