26th Congress of International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences
including the 8th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations (ATIO) Conference
14 - 19 September 2008, Anchorage, Alaska, USA
Paper ICAS 2008-10.11.1 (AIAA 2008-8954 )
FLY AROUND THE WORLD WITH A SOLAR POWERED AIRPLANE
H. Ross
Solar Impulse Team, Germany
Keywords: SOLAR POWERED AIRPLANE
Quite a few manned and unmanned solar powered aircraft
have been developed and flown in the last 30 years.
Objectives and missions cover a wide spectrum ranging
from a pure technological goal to “Fly with Solar
Energy” to civil or military surveillance and
reconnaissance missions. However, none of those aircraft
was able to demonstrate a continuous day and night
operation until 2005.
An overview of the historic solar powered aircraft is
provided and the basic challenges which have to be
solved for a solar powered aircraft are being discussed:
· Geographical area of operation, time windows
during the year, mission profiles, payload
· Energy collection and utilization
· Typical design parameter for different missions
Today’s technological status in the critical areas (solar
cells, batteries, structure/materials) is discussed. It allows
developing a solar powered aircraft with the capability
not only to fly during the sunshine hours, but to save
enough energy during the day to fly throughout the night
and recollect energy after sunrise the next day for a
perpetual continuation of flight.
In 2001 the Swiss Bertrand Piccard, who together with
Brian Jones (UK) circled the earth in a balloon in 1999,
proposed to design a manned solar powered aircraft and
to fly it around the world. Such an aircraft is now being
developed by the Solar Impulse organization in
Switzerland. The primary objective of this endeavor is to
make people aware of the fact, that the conventional
energy sources are limited and that renewable energy
must and can be used to solve future demands.
Development aspects of the Solar Impulse Program are
described and a program status is provided.
contact AIAA to acquire the full paper