SION Power’s lithium sulfur batteries take to the skies

Defense company QinetiQ (pronounced "kinetic") has performed a test flight of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) powered by lithium sulfur batteries by SION Power of Arizona.

Previous flights by UAVs with lithium polymer cells only allowed for flight times of 1 hour and 10 minutes. The lithium sulfur battery packs from SION Power yielded a flight time of over 2 hours.

SION Power is a leader in development of high energy rechargeable batteries based on lithium sulfur technology. The base cells in the battery packs used in this flight had a specific energy of 350 Wh/Kg, 50% greater than the best available lithium ion batteries. The battery pack electronics and assembly were provided by Nexergy Inc., Columbus, Ohio.

Global defense and security company QinetiQ is at the forefront of UAV technology with its Zephyr High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) UAV. Designed to fly at altitudes exceeding 50,000 feet, these planes can perform a wide range of missions and functions for both military and civilian applications. SION’s lithium sulfur battery packs are a critical part of the system design, says SION.

“It was very exciting to see SION’s batteries in action,” said Mark Jost, Executive Vice President, Marketing for SION Power. “We are already looking forward to the next flight utilizing our lithium sulfur battery technology in conjunction with QinetiQ’s HALE UAV technology. We are confident that SION’s Li-S battery technology will achieve the 12+ hours of flight time required for the night time portion of the multi-day flights of these UAV systems.”

Paul Davey, Zephyr Business Development Director at QinetiQ, said “We were exceptionally pleased with the operation of our system during this flight. Our goal is to expand on what we learned on this flight to achieve a UAV flying autonomously for months at a time using SION’s rechargeable batteries coupled with a solar array.”