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New Solar Plane Plans Non-Stop Flight Around The World (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader quotes Bloomberg:
[A] Russian tycoon and his Renova Group plan a record-breaking effort to send a plane around the world nonstop using only the power of the sun. If all goes well, a single pilot will fly for five days straight at altitudes of up to 10 miles, about a third higher than commercial airliners. The project isn't just a stunt. The glider-style airplane with a 36-meter (120-foot) wingspan will be a test of technologies that are set to be used to build new generations of autonomous craft for the military and business, say aerospace experts. They will fly continuously, have far greater reach and control than satellites and expand broadcast, communication and spying capabilities around the globe... "Our flight should prove that it's possible to make long-distance flights using solar energy," said Mikhail Lifshitz, Renova's director of high-tech asset development and a qualified pilot-instructor. A "flying laboratory" test-plane will be ready by year-end, Lifshitz said in an interview.
The plane will conserve power by slowly gliding down from the high altitudes at night -- without ever touching the ground. In comparison a solar plane (partially funded by Google) already circled the earth last year -- but it took 22 days, and made 17 different stops.
The plane will conserve power by slowly gliding down from the high altitudes at night -- without ever touching the ground. In comparison a solar plane (partially funded by Google) already circled the earth last year -- but it took 22 days, and made 17 different stops.
TFA Says there will only be a single pilot. If the attempt succeeds, this will demonstrate either how someone can (legally?) stay awake for five days AND command an aircraft during that time. There will be some interesting legalities to be defined here, bearing in mind the different national regulations governing drugs, pseudo-autonomous aircraft and combining the two.
"Our flight should prove that it's possible to make long-distance flights using solar energy if you only ever need to fly east"?
One proposed use of solar planes is as communications relays, to replace satellites. They would circle the earth continuously, one trailing the previous by about 200 km. They could fly either direction, but flying east wins in both sunlight and prevailing winds (at least in mid latitudes).
Using solar drones instead of satellites for communication is cheaper not just in launch cost, but in the cost of the electronics. Satellite electronics need to be rad-hard, but also need to be super redundant because otherwise a single bad chip can cost $100M. But with a solar drone, if there is a failure in the relay electronics, you just land it and swap out the board.
I think it's fine to use devices in the atmosphere to relay our communications signals, but why planes? Wouldn't it be better to have some sort of a blimp with thin film solar cells on its upper surface? These could provide energy for maneuvering the various layers of moving air to maintain a reasonably constant position. Alternately, it could just be at the end of a long tether. I think that's a much more elegant way of keeping up altitude overnight.