The Pegasus UAV is a solar powered unmanned aircraft

Unmanned aerial vehicle

An unmanned aerial vehicle , also known as a unmanned aircraft system , remotely piloted aircraft or unmanned aircraft, is a machine which functions either by the remote control of a navigator or pilot or autonomously, that is, as a self-directing entity...

 developed by Flemish institute for technological research

Flemish institute for technological research

The Flemish institute for technological research or VITO, is a research centre, located in Mol, Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium. The institute performs contract research and develops products and processes in the fields of energy, environment and materials, for both the public and the private sector...

. It is being created from the cooperation between the Flemish institute for technological research

Vito

Vito is an Italian name of disputed origin, usually thought to originate from Latin "vita", meaning "life",, and also corresponding to the English and French Guy , or Italian and Spanish Guido...

 and Alcatel

Alcatel

Alcatel Mobile Phones is a brand of mobile handsets. It was established in 2004 as a joint venture between Alcatel-Lucent of France and TCL Communication of China....

. It aims to hook up into ESA's earth monitoring system GMES

GMES

Global Monitoring for Environment and Security is a joint initiative of the European Commission and European Space Agency, which aims at achieving an autonomous and operational Earth observation capacity....

, and will also be used for disaster preparedness and environmental monitoring

Environmental monitoring

Environmental monitoring describes the processes and activities that need to take place to characterise and monitor the quality of the environment...

.

It is similar (though smaller) than the Helios

Helios Prototype

The NASA Pathfinder, NASA Pathfinder Plus, NASA Centurion and NASA Helios Prototype were an evolutionary series of solar- and fuel-cell-system-powered unmanned aerial vehicles. AeroVironment, Inc. developed the vehicles under NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology program...

, and of the same size as the DLR UAV and ESA Heliplat.