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Boeing Gets $89M To Build Drone That Can Fly For 5 Years Straight

Posted by Soulskill on from the home-in-the-clouds dept.

coondoggie writes "One of the more unique unmanned aircraft concepts took a giant step toward reality this week when the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency inked an agreement with Boeing to build the SolarEagle, a plane capable of remaining at heights above 60,000ft for over five years. Boeing says the first SolarEagle under the $89 million contract could fly as early as 2014."

12 of 271 comments (clear)

  1. batteries... by martas · · Score: 5, Interesting

    i suppose one of the biggest challenges will be developing [lightweight] batteries that can function for 5 years while being dis/recharged every day... i.e. 1800 times. could be tough.

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    weinersmith
    1. Re:batteries... by martas · · Score: 2, Interesting

      uhhh, well, sort of... but: depending on their orbit, "night" can be much more rare/less long than for a plane; due to lack of atmosphere, they get a lot more energy from the sun per sq inch of solar cell than a plane; and last but by far not least, they don't have to fly. mechanical motion is extremely rare for your average satellite. i'd think that changes the problem quite a bit.

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      weinersmith
    2. Re:batteries... by timeOday · · Score: 2, Interesting
      I don't get it either, when the article says "harvesting solar energy during the day that will be stored in fuel cells."

      Quoting wikipedia: "Fuel cells are different from conventional electrochemical cell batteries in that they consume reactant from an external source, which must be replenished - a thermodynamically open system. By contrast, batteries store electrical energy chemically and hence represent a thermodynamically closed system."

      So AFAIK there is no way to "recharge" a fuel cell from solar cells, and it's weird they'd come into it since there are plenty of other rechargeable battery technologies.

  2. Now, "Google Maps Live!" by Animats · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wait until Google gets these. Google Maps could be updated in real time.

    1. Re:Now, "Google Maps Live!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      hahaaaaaa... no, at least not without some SERIOUS backend. Aerial photography capture is quite a bit more complicated then most people seem to think. While technically with the right aircraft you can spit out a relatively (~20-100ft) accurate map with no ground control points it takes DAYS just to process the data into an uncompressed georectified image, and that's if you don't mind some pretty severe frame edge misaligns. I work for a county GIS (electronic maps) department in Lower Michigan, and on top of the week or so of work required to set up the two dozen ground control points (~2'x'2 white arrows) and high accuracy GPS them it took MONTHS before the PRELIMINARY images made it to us (Uncompressed, 400GB in thousands of separate image files), and after we confirmed them another month before we received the final compressed images. Now some of that of course was a queue, but the fact that there was such a long queue suggests the processing time involved. Now I suppose Google could build themselves a couple supercomputers and wiz through the things in a few hours but they would still have to get HUNDREDS of GB of data down from the drones, that would take some time. On top of all of this the summary says that this drone will fly at 60,000 ft. Pretty much all aerial photographs of any real useful resolution are flown at no more than 16,000 ft (ours were flown at ~10,000 ft for 1' resolution). Maybe in a decade or so with some pretty decent technological advancements (data transfer rates, camera resolution, processors) it might be possible, but I doubt it could be done now (for an uninsane cost). The fastest I've heard of a company getting aerial photography to a customer was a a couple weeks, in a disaster situation (hurricane, tornado, etc).

  3. Re:Summary Fail by just_another_sean · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Apparently, not necessarily.

    --
    Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional by CowboyNeal
  4. Re:SEE! by blhack · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's already *here*.

    That is absolutely fantastic news. Could you point me at a place where I could buy one?

    The reality is that the derivative technologies are not always things like "we need to invent a solar panel", they're not even "we need to invent light composites", they're "we need to figure out a way of quickly producing these exotic materials on a large enough skill to fill the demand that the military is going to have for these.".

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    NewslilySocial News. No lolcats allowed.
  5. Re:400 foot wingspan, no unimproved airfields by amicusNYCL · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Where the hell are you going to launch it from?

    Do you realize how many airstrips worldwide are operated by the US? I'm sure they would have no problem launching from Diego Garcia, that was a fine place from where to launch B-52s, KC-135s, and B-2s for their missions to Iraq.

    --
    "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
  6. Re:Satellite replacement? by mlts · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I can see these put into use for keeping communications operational, should the Kessler Syndrome come into play making LEO impassible (courtesy nations like China showing off their target practice skills and the resulting space debris).

    Another use would be bandwidth for populated areas, so traffic wouldn't have to be bounced off a satellite just for region to region traffic.

  7. Re:2014? by radtea · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm curious to hear more about your concept for a solar-powered jet engine.

    I don't see why a solar or electric Brayton-cycle heat engine shouldn't be possible. I'm actually curious that no one has done this for solar farms instead of Stirling-cycle engines. While the theoretical efficiency of the Stirling-cycle engine is ideal, the practical problems are large due the the number of moving parts and issues with heat transfer.

    Brayton-cycle turbine engines inject the heat into the working fluid away from the moving parts, and one can imagine the air flowing through a heated mesh to perform the transfer. Not a winner for this applciation, where direct electric-drive propellers have compelling efficiency and possibly weight advantages, but for solar farms it might very well be competitive with Stirling engines.

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    Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
  8. But There is Mostly Dead by twmcneil · · Score: 2, Interesting

    MIRACLE MAX:It just so happens that your friend is MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between MOSTLY dead and ALL dead. You see, mostly dead is still slightly alive. And there's only one thing you can do with mostly dead.
    INIGO: what's that?
    MIRACLE MAX: search through his pockets for loose change

    --
    "The ferrets, they're every where I tell you!"
  9. Re:SEE! by WolfWithoutAClause · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Concorde could reach 60k.

    An SR71 got diverted once because of this. The SR71 was flying somewhat faster, but Concorde's passengers were munching canapés and drinking Champagne, and her pilots were only a little less comfortable ;-)

    Sadly, both are now grounded.

    There's still a few English Electric Lightnings flying in South Africa, they can do 60k, and they're demilitarised.

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    -WolfWithoutAClause

    "Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"