https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/longest-autonomous-flight
I was browsing the internet one day and came across this article, its about the world record endurance flight for a RC airplane, witch is 81 hours currently, but they never went to far so they could glide. So I watched the video and did some research, and almost all of the extreme long endurance were electric glider style planes with solar panels lining the top of the wing.
So I was thinking "that's pretty cool, but what if you went really far away?"
So I did what anyone with a ton of time does, I brainstormed ideas.
And, what if, you kept the long/high lift wingspan, low drag body, solar panels, batteries, and motor/prop of the powered glider. Except put a small gas engine inside the body.
You could use the solar panels to keep electricity flowing during the day to fly away, but when night comes and the solar panels are useless, turn on the motor that's attached to another motor turned into an electric generator to charge the batteries. You wouldn't need much fuel or a big motor, just one that can turn a RC motor for a couple hours. That would increase the time when you could have the motor running to get further away.
This is nowhere near a complete thought, but would the concept potentially work? Or would it be better just to put more batteries to store the electricity that you got from the day.
To clarify; I'm not looking for endurance, just longest flat out range. I'm also not interested in the controls, telemetry or airframe yet. just the power source.
And thank you, I honestly have no idea what I'm talking about with these types of things.
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