Overview
- The iconic solar-powered aircraft, which went down on May 4, lost power shortly after takeoff from Stennis International Airport in Mississippi, according to preliminary NTSB information.
- Investigators say the uncrewed drone crashed into the Gulf of Mexico in international waters near Bay St. Louis and no injuries were reported.
- The airframe was destroyed on impact and the NTSB has opened an investigation that has not yet identified a final technical cause.
- Skydweller Aero acquired the plane in 2019 and refit it as an autonomous, long-endurance platform for surveillance, communications and testing across civilian and defense programs.
- The loss erases plans to display the round‑the‑world airframe in a Swiss museum, though its design—wings as wide as a jumbo jet and roughly 17,000 solar cells—continues to shape work on fossil‑fuel‑free flight.