So I was under the impression that the longest time for most balloons and airships was around a day. Some of the post world war II airships apparently could survive for up to 200+ hours at a time!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N_class_blimp That's more than a week! Granted to do what a lot of us want to (build permanent stratospheric stations) we'll need to prove they can stay for months at a time but it's way better than 24 hours.

In comparison the Zephr has stood aloft for 82 hours and that is something to be proud of in it's own category.

Non commercial flight clocks in at 1,124 hours while commercial is at 23 hours.

Of course short of going to space NASA's scientific balloon, CREAM takes the cake at staying aloft for 42 days.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_endurance_record


anyways... these craft flying for a month or so at a time is good and all but we need one that will stay up there for years. Maybe we need a few challenges introduced?