DIY Solar Airplane, Rev 2
Here is my new solar airplane (the previous version is here).
As before, it uses the Parkzone Vapor's radio and motor, plus five Powerfilm solar cells. In parallel with the solar cells, I include a tiny 20mAh lipo battery to keep the radio happy. However before I hook up the solar cells, I make sure that there is not enough juice in the battery to run the motor (no cheating).
The wing is a vast improvement over the previous version. It is stiffer torsionally, has more span, more area, and a better elliptical planform. The wing and tail are covered with mylar from one of those emergency survival blankets.
Here are some specifications:
Wing span: 35in (89cm)
Wing area: 165 sq in
Total Weight: 42g
Solar Cell Weight: 18g
Last Saturday was the first calm and sunny day all year (Seattle). Although conditions were not perfect (low sun angle, a bit too windy), I still managed to sneak in a few flights (see the video below). I think with the right conditions, this airplane could fly for hours. Finding a day with the right conditions might be challenging, though. It is often very calm early in the morning, but the sun is too low. By mid-day, when the sun is high, thermal activity tends to kick up random gusts. I'll keep waiting for that perfect day...
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Comment by Darren on April 25, 2011 at 1:17pm -
fantastic flight!
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Comment by Jacob Rafael on April 25, 2011 at 2:16pm -
amazing project !!! bravo
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Comment by Ritchie on April 25, 2011 at 3:09pm -
Sounds excellent but video has disappeared :(
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Comment by Paul G. on April 25, 2011 at 4:43pm -
well done :)
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Comment by Jack Little on April 25, 2011 at 7:48pm
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This is very cool. Can you post more information on where you purchased the solar panels and what model? What is the voltage output of each panel?
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Comment by Marlan L. Kingsley on April 25, 2011 at 8:58pm -
awesome !!! nice work
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Comment by Omer Cayir on April 26, 2011 at 3:08am
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Nice work Louis. What is the efficiency of the cells and how many watts do they produce?
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Comment by Louis LeGrand on April 26, 2011 at 6:35am
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Hi Jack. More technical details about the solar cells, etc are given in the rev 1 post (http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/diy-solar-airplane)
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Comment by Louis LeGrand on April 26, 2011 at 9:21am
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Hi Omer. My set of 5 Powerfilm solar cells all together deliver about 2.5 W under perfect conditions. They are not particularly efficient on a W/m^2 basis - only about 7%. There are other cells with much higher W/m^2 metrics. However, the cells are the thin film variety, and are quite light. So on a W/g basis they are on par with other, more exotic cells. BTW, in my previous post (http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/diy-solar-airplane) I made a mistake, quoting the performance at 0.27 W/g. The actual figure is more like 0.14 W/g. I think a better choice for solar cells would be the A-300 Sunpower cells, but they are harder to get.
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Comment by Mick James on April 29, 2011 at 2:58am -
Great landing :)
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