Sunrise, the world's first solar-powered airplane

Boucher, Robert

doi:10.2514/3.45213

Cited by 66 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Year Type of BATTERY Specific energy (W h/kg) Solar Impulse HB-SIA [74] 2009 Lithium-ion polymer battery, weigh 400 kg, or more than 1/4 of the total mass of the plane 240 Sunrise II [75] 1985 Lithium-ion polymer battery 145 Xihe [77] 2009 Lithium-ion polymer battery 196 Green flight challenge:…”

Section: Namementioning

confidence: 99%

Reviews of methods to extract and store energy for solar-powered aircraft

Gao

Hou

Guo

et al. 2015

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

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Section: Namementioning

confidence: 99%

Reviews of methods to extract and store energy for solar-powered aircraft

Gao

Hou

Guo

et al. 2015

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

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“…There is a significantly increasing interest in the use of solar-powered high altitude platforms HAPs for a range of applications including wireless communications, earth observation, environmental monitoring and atmospheric studies [1][2][3][4][5], especially since the first solar-powered aircraft-based HAP was successfully deployed [5]. Energy management is a fundamental task of such systems that needs careful consideration to make them operational.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Solar-powered HAPs use energy harvested by solar cells during the day to maintain flight, while any excess is stored in an energy storage system for night-time operation [6][7][8]. The harvested energy is dependent on the incident angle of the sun's rays on the solar cells, the duration of daylight, air mass [5] and latitude of the cells. Therefore, different capabilities and configurations of HAPs are needed for operations in different locations considering the latitude dependent solar irradiance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy Management of Solar-Powered Aircraft-Based High Altitude Platform for Wireless Communications

et al. 2020

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With the increasing interest in wireless communications from solar-powered aircraft-based high altitude platforms (HAPs), it is imperative to assess the feasibility of their deployment in different locations with the constraints on energy consumption and payload weight under consideration. This paper considers the energy management of solar-powered aircraft-based HAPs for wireless communications service provisioning in equatorial regions and regions further up the northern hemisphere. The total solar energy harvested and consumed on the shortest day of the year is analyzed, and it is explained how this determines the feasibility of long endurance, semi-permanent missions. This takes into account the different aircraft-based HAPs and the energy storage systems currently available, and how these can be deployed for wireless communications. We show that the solar-powered HAPs are energy and weight limited, and this depends largely on the platform’s wingspan available for the deployment of solar collectors. Our analysis show that services can be provided for a duration of 15–24 h/day using current platforms, with wingspans ranging between 25–35 m, depending on the configuration and coverage radius. Furthermore, we show that doubling an aircraft’s wingspan can increase its payload capacity by a factor of 6, which in turn enhances its feasibility for wireless communications.

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“…Solar power could potentially redefine the endurance capabilities of UAVs because sunlight is an inexhaustible energy source. Since the successful flight of the first solar-powered aircraft, Sunrise [3], in 1974, designing solar-powered aircraft has been a topic of interest for the general public and UAV communities [4][5][6][7][8][9]. Solar-powered airplanes are used in developing scientific technology and for commercial exploitation purposes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fuzzy Controller for a Voltage-Regulated Solar-Powered MPPT System for Hybrid Power System Applications

2015

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This paper presents the design of a fuzzy-logic-based voltage-regulated solar power maximum power point tracking (MPPT) system for applications involving hybrid power systems. The system contains a solar power system and battery as the primary and secondary power sources, respectively. The solar system alone supplies power to the electric motor and maintains the output voltage at a predetermined level when it has sufficient power. When the solar power is insufficient, the solar system is operated at its maximum power point (MPP) and the battery is engaged to compensate for the insufficiency. First, a variant of the incremental conductance MPP condition was established. Under the MPP condition, the voltage-regulated MPPT system was formulated as a feedback control system, where the MPP condition and voltage regulation requirements were used as the system inputs. Next, a fuzzy controller was developed to perform the voltage-regulated MPPT function for the hybrid power system. A simulation model based on Matrix laboratory (MATLAB)/SIMULINK (a block diagram environment for multi-domain simulation and model-based design) and a piecewise linear electric circuit simulation (PLECS) tool for controlling the dc motor velocity was developed to verify the voltage-regulated solar power MPPT system.

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Sunrise, the world's first solar-powered airplane

Cited by 66 publications

References 2 publications

Reviews of methods to extract and store energy for solar-powered aircraft

Reviews of methods to extract and store energy for solar-powered aircraft

Energy Management of Solar-Powered Aircraft-Based High Altitude Platform for Wireless Communications

Fuzzy Controller for a Voltage-Regulated Solar-Powered MPPT System for Hybrid Power System Applications

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