Scribd
Upload
93 views2 pages

Solar Powered Aircraft

Solar powered aircrafts were developed to provide a more sustainable alternative to traditional jet fuel-powered planes. The planes have photovoltaic cells on their wings that gather solar energy to recharge onboard batteries and power propellers, allowing them to fly continuously for up to 26 hours including at night. Solar impulse aircraft works by using highly efficient solar cells and batteries, arranged across its wide wingspan, to collect and store enough solar energy during the day to power the plane through the night. While solar cell and battery technologies still limit energy storage capacity, these solar planes demonstrate the potential for solar-powered flight to reduce emissions and costs from aviation over the long run.

Uploaded by

Qa Lab
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
93 views2 pages

Solar Powered Aircraft

Solar powered aircrafts were developed to provide a more sustainable alternative to traditional jet fuel-powered planes. The planes have photovoltaic cells on their wings that gather solar energy to recharge onboard batteries and power propellers, allowing them to fly continuously for up to 26 hours including at night. Solar impulse aircraft works by using highly efficient solar cells and batteries, arranged across its wide wingspan, to collect and store enough solar energy during the day to power the plane through the night. While solar cell and battery technologies still limit energy storage capacity, these solar planes demonstrate the potential for solar-powered flight to reduce emissions and costs from aviation over the long run.

Uploaded by

Qa Lab
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

SOLAR POWERED AIRCRAFTS

and can stay in the air With ever increasing demand for aviation fuel to power our aeroplanes and its steep
rising costs the time has come for us to find a more cost effective, efficient and ecofriendly way to power
our aircrafts, thus solar powered aircrafts came into existence. The planes have photovoltaic cells on their
wings which gather solar energy thereby recharging the batteries that powers its propellers. The planes are
so designed that it can fly even during the night time for as long as 26 hours.

Introduction and importance of solar powered aircrafts


Travelling by aeroplanes has been one of the most effective and efficient means of transportation, even
now it is one of the most preferred means of transportation. Aviation fuel, the fuel which is used in
aeroplanes is a fossil fuel whose reserves are depleting at an extremely fast rate and also the emissions
caused by such aeroplanes using aviation fuel is affecting our environment as well as our ozone layer. So
the time has come for us to power our aeroplanes using some other sources of energy and thus then
emerged solar powered aeroplanes. One of the biggest advantage of using solar powered aircrafts is that
there would be no emissions and also over the years in the long run the cost of travelling by air would
reduce drastically. Over a considerable period of time these aircrafts have been modified and now these
aeroplanes can fly around the world even without stopping once even during the night-time. These
aircrafts have the capacity to stay in the air for as long as 26 hours. Thus if solar powered aircrafts are
introduced on a large scale it will make our world a global village making air travel eco-friendly and
extremely cheap. Solar powered aircrafts can also play a pioneering role in the development of the
economy in developing countries like India where air travel is still out of the bounds for the poorer
sections of the society. Thus we can say that introduction of solar powered aircrafts will usher in a
revolution that might change the belief which the common man has about air travel.
How does the solar impulse aircraft work?
The aircraft uses super-efficient solar cells and batteries to stay in the air after the Sun's rays had faded.
The plane has 12,000 solar cells arranged on its wingspan which collected enough energy to power the
plane for the flight. There are 11,628 monocrystalline silicon cells, each 150 microns thick, they have
been selected for their lightness, flexibility and efficiency. At? 22%, their energy efficiency
could have been higher, but the additional weight would have affected? the aircraft during night flight.
Currently ?the major constraint of the project is storing energy in the lithium polymer batteries. At the
present stage, the maximum energy density is 220 Wh/kg. The accumulators which are required for the
night flight weigh 400 kg, equal to ? of the total weight of the aircraft. Success is therefore possible only
by maximizing aerodynamic performance and optimizing the energy chain.

What were the sources of energy?


At midday, each m? of land surface receives an equivalent of 1,000 watts, or 1.3 horsepower
of light power. Over 24 hours this averages to 250 W/m?. With 200m? of photovoltaic cells and 12% total
efficiency of the propulsion chain, the aircraft?s engines achieve on average of 8 HP or 6 KW ?And it is?
this energy which is ?optimized from the solar panel to the propeller by the efforts of the entire team of
solar impulse.

You might also like