This record was set ~3 months after someone else did it for 50 days. From an engineering stand point, performance of components or materials are always assumed

This record was set ~3 months after someone else did it for 50 days. From an engineering stand point, performance of components or materials are always assumed to be much worse than actual and the forces / conditions they are subject to overestimated, with further factors of safety applied on top. This is how it should be. It also means properly designed things will carry on working better than you expect (on average). It’s not interesting (to me) from a technological stand point compared to the solar UAV because flying up and down the same road with a truck refuelling you is not useful, and if others (e.g. Military, NASA) could be bothered to do it - they would probably do a better job relatively easily. To me - It’s the same as building the worlds longest domino trail. You could beat the previous record by 1 million dominos which is neat but.. what have you proven, and why does it matter ?