Solar-powered aircraft
Solar-powered aircraft are electric aircraft that can be an airplane, blimp, or airship and use either a battery or hydrogen to store the energy produced by the solar cells and use that energy at night when the sun isn't shining.
Usage
Solar-powered aircraft do not require fuel, so they don't require oxygen, and they are able to operate at altitudes over 20 kilometres (12 mi) to 100 kilometres (62 mi) for months at a time.[1][2]
Conventional passenger or cargo aircraft usages aren't practical yet with modern technology, but high-altitude platform stations and long-endurance missions over a fixed location with unmanned aircraft or airships are feasible. Thus solar-powered aircraft could be used in telecommunications, video/imagery, flight control by transporting airport surveillance radars, in precipitation detection by transporting weather radars, geopositioning Global Positioning Systems (GPS),[3] and other pseudo satellite[4] applications that transpond the data with ground stations.
List of solar airplanes
This list is non-exhaustive.
- AstroFlight Sunrise - first uncrewed solar flight in 1974[5]
- SolarOne - First manned solar flight in december 1978[6]
- Mauro Solar Riser - first flight in April 1979[7]
- MacCready Gossamer Penguin - second crewed solar flight in May 1980[8]
- Pathfinder
- Centurion
- Helios
- Facebook Aquila
- Solar Impulse - first manned solar aircraft to circumnavigate the globe.[9] Since reconfigured by Skydweller Aero into an uncrewed autonomous drone.[10]
- Airbus Zephyr[11]
- Kea Atmos Mk1 solar powered stratospheric HAPS
- BAE Systems PHASA-35[12]
- HAPSMobile Hawk30
- SolarStratos -It is the highest manned solar- and electric-powered aircraft, having flown at an altitude of more than 9,500 metres[13]
Solar airships
Solar Airship One is being developed by Euro Airship and is planning to launch a world tour in 2026 and fly by 25 countries in 20 days as it travels around the world non-stop.
It will be autonomous and use electrolysis to store hydrogen to keep moving at night when the sun isn't shining.[14]
See also
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- Aerobot
- Geostationary satellite
- High-altitude balloon
- Hydrogen-powered aircraft
- Ingenuity (helicopter) - Solar helicopter on Mars
- Mars Aerial and Ground Global Intelligent Explorer (MAGGIE) - proposed solar VTOL aircraft to fly in the atmosphere of mars
- 2023 Chinese balloon incident
- Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay
- Radiosonde - telemetry device carried by weather balloons
- Advanced Technology Demonstrator - next generation Doppler radar for weather and air traffic control
- Third-generation photovoltaic cell
References
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- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Recent Advancements in Solar-Powered Aircraft". AZoCleantech.com. December 21, 2022.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."MIT School of Engineering | » Is it possible to make solar-powered airplanes?".
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Zheng, Hongzhao; Atia, Mohamed; Yanikomeroglu, Halim (2022). "High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS)-Aided GNSS for Urban Areas". 2022 IEEE International Conference on Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments (WiSEE). pp. 29–34. arXiv:2301.00762. doi:10.1109/WiSEE49342.2022.9926812. ISBN 978-1-6654-7280-7.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Hill, Kelly (December 20, 2021). "What are HAPS and what role will they play in future networks?".
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Boucher, Robert J. (1985). "Sunrise, the world's first solar-powered airplane | Journal of Aircraft". Journal of Aircraft. 22 (10): 840–846. doi:10.2514/3.45213.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.insultantable (2014-04-19). "Solar One", the world's first solar powered aircraft Part 2. Retrieved 2025-08-21 – via YouTube.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."First solar powered aircraft: Mauro Solar Riser". Air/E.
- ^ "Plane flies on sun power", by Terrance W. McGarry, United Press International report in the Spokane (WA) Chronicle, June 5, 1980, p12
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Solar Impulse - Around the world to promote clean technologies". Solar Impulse.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Joss, Kevin (July 25, 2024). "Skydweller on mission to fly uncrewed solar aircraft autonomously nonstop around the world". Futurride.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Demarest, Colin (November 13, 2023). "Airbus, maker of long-flying Zephyr, launches US drone business". C4ISRNet.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Reed, Jessica (July 25, 2023). "PHASA-35: High-Altitude UAS Offers Game-Changing Potential". Avionics International.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Swiss pilot surpasses solar-powered plane altitude record". RFI. 2025-08-13. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Burgos, Matthew (September 19, 2023). "Solar and hydrogen-powered aircraft will fly around the world for 20 days without stopping". designboom | architecture & design magazine.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."A Mars VTOL Aerobot - Preliminary Design, Dynamics and Control".
