It's hoped a new high-flying solar powered plane could one day help save lives.
If test flights are successful, the stratospheric aircraft could be used to gather data from high above extreme weather events.
Mark Rocket’s company Kea Aerospace is behind the technology.
“This is New Zealand's first solar powered stratospheric aircraft," he told 1News.
"It'll be used to collect high resolution imagery for applications such as environmental monitoring precision agriculture and disaster management."
And now flight testing has begun.
The zero emissions unmanned aircraft has a wingspan of 12 and a half metres and weighs under 40 kilograms.
“Extreme weather is going to get more severe and more frequent with events like we've just seen on the North Island, this aircraft could be an incredible asset to provide near real time information to help people on the ground,” said lead scientist Daniel Price.
Climate Scientist James Renwick says it could be a game changer.
“It could definitely save lives, it's hard to predict exactly but yeah the better prepared we are the better the information we've got the safer we can all be.
“It's the kind of idea that's been talked about for many years and it has been done for some storms in the Northern Hemisphere and the north Pacific for instance, but as far as i know it's never been done in our region maybe not even in the Southern Hemisphere at all,” Renwick said.
And it's only the start...
“So I think you know the 2020s, we're gonna see a bunch of these types of aircraft that are evolving,” Rocket said.
The team now working on an aircraft that can fly continuously.
“So imagine like you had that aircraft already during the extreme weather events in the North Island and it's already flying," Chief Technology officer Philipp Sueltrop said.
"So you know that the extreme weather is coming to some extent, so you now can take images before and after to assess what was not damaged before and while it's happening, like your emergency services, they can actually plan which roads are accessible, which ones are not, where do we send our resources or teams, the trucks, the food, they can all do that in real time."
Hoping in the future to keep eyes in the air for days, weeks and months at a time.
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