Solar-powered flight the future of zero-emissions aviation?
09 Jul 2014
The most exciting prospect since the Helios is the Solar Impulse 2 team from Switzerland, who are planning the world’s first ‘round-the-world’ flight scheduled for 2015.
The team includes 2 pilots: Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, who will take turns flying one after the other in the single-seater cockpit over 10 consecutive legs, some lasting more than 5 days straight. The journey of 35,000km (22,000 miles) will take over 500 hours during a 5-month mission involving a support team of 60 people.
The team includes 2 pilots: Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, who will take turns flying one after the other in the single-seater cockpit over 10 consecutive legs, some lasting more than 5 days straight. The journey of 35,000km (22,000 miles) will take over 500 hours during a 5-month mission involving a support team of 60 people.
The flight plan gives an indication of solar resources around the world – roughly following the equator. The first stop in the journey is India, reinforcing the abundant solar energy available and India’s future ambition as a solar energy superpower.
This latest expedition marks another major milestone, but it certainly won’t lead to regular passenger flight. Air travel is a major focus of efforts towards decarbonisation, not just because passenger jets produce greenhouse gases but because they emit them at high altitudes which compounds their negative effects. However passenger aircraft are too heavy and travel too fast for solar power to be a viable option, the physical limits of solar energy over an area the size of an aircraft mean that sufficient power can never be achieved - at least with the types of solutions we are looking at today. Solar-powered aircraft cannot carry a payload much heavier than one person, which gives a sense of their true potential; as unmanned autonomous or remote-controlled service aircraft.
Solar-powered aircraft that can remain in the air continuously over long periods without the need for refuelling could be the ideal platform for search and rescue planes; they could identify people lost at sea or in remote locations. Such planes could even deliver crucial items such as liferafts, food or communication equipment. Solar-powered aircraft could also provide internet access for remote locations. For these reasons interest in solar-powered flight is growing, Google and Facebook recently made significant acquisitions of related aerospace companies Titan Aerospace and Ascenta respectively. Both companies have an expressed interest in bringing high speed internet to remote locations in the developing world.
Delivery of everyday packages by unmanned aircraft is an idea being considered by a number of companies, most importantly Amazon. Solar power systems can provide clean and sustainable energy for such craft. These developments may lead to all sorts of semi-autonomous hybrid aerial vehicles.
With backers like Airbus, Google, Facebook and Amazon it is looking like electric flight and solar-powered aviation has a bright future.
This latest expedition marks another major milestone, but it certainly won’t lead to regular passenger flight. Air travel is a major focus of efforts towards decarbonisation, not just because passenger jets produce greenhouse gases but because they emit them at high altitudes which compounds their negative effects. However passenger aircraft are too heavy and travel too fast for solar power to be a viable option, the physical limits of solar energy over an area the size of an aircraft mean that sufficient power can never be achieved - at least with the types of solutions we are looking at today. Solar-powered aircraft cannot carry a payload much heavier than one person, which gives a sense of their true potential; as unmanned autonomous or remote-controlled service aircraft.
Solar-powered aircraft that can remain in the air continuously over long periods without the need for refuelling could be the ideal platform for search and rescue planes; they could identify people lost at sea or in remote locations. Such planes could even deliver crucial items such as liferafts, food or communication equipment. Solar-powered aircraft could also provide internet access for remote locations. For these reasons interest in solar-powered flight is growing, Google and Facebook recently made significant acquisitions of related aerospace companies Titan Aerospace and Ascenta respectively. Both companies have an expressed interest in bringing high speed internet to remote locations in the developing world.
Delivery of everyday packages by unmanned aircraft is an idea being considered by a number of companies, most importantly Amazon. Solar power systems can provide clean and sustainable energy for such craft. These developments may lead to all sorts of semi-autonomous hybrid aerial vehicles.
With backers like Airbus, Google, Facebook and Amazon it is looking like electric flight and solar-powered aviation has a bright future.
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