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solar-powered aircraft

{{Short description|Flying sun-powered vehicles}}

File:Pathfinder Plus solar aircraft over Hawaii.jpg prototype]]

Solar-powered aircraft are electric aircraft that can be an airplane, blimp, or airship and use either a battery or hydrogen to store the energy produced by the solar cells and use that energy at night when the sun isn't shining.

Usage

Solar-powered aircraft do not require fuel, so they don't require oxygen, and they are able to operate at altitudes over {{convert|20|km|mi}} to {{convert|100|km|mi}} for months at a time.{{Cite web|url=https://www.azocleantech.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1639|title=Recent Advancements in Solar-Powered Aircraft|date=December 21, 2022|website=AZoCleantech.com}}{{Cite web|url=https://engineering.mit.edu/engage/ask-an-engineer/is-it-possible-to-make-solar-powered-airplanes/|title=MIT School of Engineering | » Is it possible to make solar-powered airplanes?}}

Conventional passenger or cargo aircraft usages aren't practical yet with modern technology, but high-altitude platform stations and long-endurance missions over a fixed location with unmanned aircraft or airships are feasible. Thus solar-powered aircraft could be used in telecommunications, video/imagery, flight control by transporting airport surveillance radars, in precipitation detection by transporting weather radars, geopositioning Global Positioning Systems (GPS),{{cite book | arxiv=2301.00762 | doi=10.1109/WiSEE49342.2022.9926812 | chapter=High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS)-Aided GNSS for Urban Areas | title=2022 IEEE International Conference on Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments (WiSEE) | date=2022 | last1=Zheng | first1=Hongzhao | last2=Atia | first2=Mohamed | last3=Yanikomeroglu | first3=Halim | pages=29–34 | isbn=978-1-6654-7280-7 }} and other pseudo satellite{{Cite web|url=https://www.rcrwireless.com/20211220/network-infrastructure/what-are-haps-and-what-role-will-they-play-in-future-networks|title=What are HAPS and what role will they play in future networks?|first=Kelly|last=Hill|date=December 20, 2021}} applications that transpond the data with ground stations.

List of solar airplanes

This list is non-exhaustive.

  • AstroFlight Sunrise - first uncrewed solar flight in 1974{{Cite journal|url=https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/3.45213?journalCode=ja|title=Sunrise, the world's first solar-powered airplane | Journal of Aircraft|journal=Journal of Aircraft |date=1985 |volume=22 |issue=10 |pages=840–846 |doi=10.2514/3.45213 |last1=Boucher |first1=Robert J. }}
  • Mauro Solar Riser - first crewed solar flight in April 1979{{Cite news|url=https://air-e.nl/announcement/first-solar-powered-aircraft-mauro-solar-riser/|title=First solar powered aircraft: Mauro Solar Riser|newspaper=Air/E }}
  • MacCready Gossamer Penguin - second crewed solar flight in May 1980"Plane flies on sun power", by Terrance W. McGarry, United Press International report in the Spokane (WA) Chronicle, June 5, 1980, p12
  • Pathfinder
  • Centurion
  • Helios
  • Facebook Aquila
  • Solar Impulse - first manned solar aircraft to circumnavigate the globe.{{Cite web|url=https://www.solarimpulse.com/|title=Solar Impulse - Around the world to promote clean technologies|website=Solar Impulse}} Since reconfigured by [https://www.skydweller.aero/ Skydweller Aero] into an uncrewed autonomous drone.{{Cite web|url=https://futurride.com/2024/07/25/skydweller-on-mission-to-fly-uncrewed-solar-aircraft-autonomously-nonstop-around-the-world/|title=Skydweller on mission to fly uncrewed solar aircraft autonomously nonstop around the world|first=Kevin |last=Joss |date=July 25, 2024 |website=Futurride}}
  • Airbus Zephyr{{Cite web|url=https://www.c4isrnet.com/unmanned/uas/2023/11/13/airbus-maker-of-long-flying-zephyr-launches-us-drone-business/|title=Airbus, maker of long-flying Zephyr, launches US drone business|first=Colin|last=Demarest|date=November 13, 2023|website=C4ISRNet}}
  • Kea Atmos Mk1 solar powered stratospheric HAPS
  • BAE Systems PHASA-35{{Cite web|url=https://www.aviationtoday.com/2023/07/25/phasa-35-haps-uas/|title=PHASA-35: High-Altitude UAS Offers Game-Changing Potential|first=Jessica|last=Reed|date=July 25, 2023|website=Avionics International}}
  • HAPSMobile Hawk30

Solar airships

File:Stratobus artiste.jpg]]

Solar Airship One is being developed by Euro Airship and is planning to launch a would tour in 2026 and fly by 25 countries in 20 days as it travels around the world non-stop.

It will be autonomous and use electrolysis to store hydrogen to keep moving at night when the sun isn't shining.{{Cite web|url=https://www.designboom.com/technology/solar-hydrogen-aircraft-euro-airship-one-nonstop-flight-09-19-2023/|title=Solar and hydrogen-powered aircraft will fly around the world for 20 days without stopping|first=Matthew |last=Burgos |date=September 19, 2023 |website=designboom | architecture & design magazine}}

See also

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| footer = Solar-powered aircraft concept for Mars, Mars Aerial and Ground Global Intelligent Explorer (MAGGIE). VTOL capabilities to land and recharge the batteries.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/41504124_A_Mars_VTOL_Aerobot_-_Preliminary_Design_Dynamics_and_Control {{See also|Mars aircraft|Mars Piloted Orbital Station}}

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References

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Electric aircraft

Category:Energy conservation

Category:Renewable energy technology

Category:Aviation and the environment

Category:Balloons (aeronautics)

Category:Balloon-borne experiments