[[searchwing-solarflight]]

This is an old revision of the document!


The time airborne and with that the operation radius is limited by the battery life. Provided the case that the sun is shining above the mediterranean sea, solar cells on the wing surface are capable to increase this radius. At ETH Zurich they even built a autonomous rc-plane that can fly through the entire night with the solar energy collected the day before. Thought further, it may even be possible to develop a drone which can be launched even from mainland and only needs to return for data transfers and maintenance.

For nearer future the first step is to only increase the range with solar energy.

Holger Lambertus describes in a blog-entry the manufacturing-process of a wing with inbuilt Solar-Panels. He builds them with a core of foamed material on which the Solar cells along with a top layer of glass are laminated.

To get this solar project viable it is necessary to increase the wing-surface. Designing a custom-wing is disappointingly difficult.

Author: Nepomuk

* Paper “Solar System for a Long Endurance Electric UAV” - https://ubibliorum.ubi.pt/bitstream/10400.6/6480/1/4312_8292.pdf

* Report “M:2:I Milestone 2 Solar Panel Installation” - https://m2i.aere.iastate.edu/cardinalflight/files/2017/12/ArrowTeam_Milestone2_Report.pdf

Mini Talon

* 0.3 m² Wing Area

Talon

* 0.6 m² Wing Area

  • searchwing-solarflight.1591639197.txt.gz
  • Last modified: 2020/06/08 19:59
  • by wf68spef