At the AUVSI conference, Silent Falcon UAV of Alburquerque, New Mexico unveiled a solar powered UAV. The UAV has up to 14 hours of flight endurance. Detailed report from Denver Business Journal and Silent Falcon UAV's own website
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spectrolab has solar cells that are 40% eff so might be possile
I am guessing 40 to 60 % of the 17 hours is spent gliding while recharging batts.
I think the key here is the TFPV solar cell.
Looks like a 18' x 15.5" sheet can generate 33V at 3.88A, being sold for constructing solar panels on roofs. Their SF-L has a wing span of 5.2 meter (17ft). Looks to be a width of about 15.5" or so. So basically one of these roof sheets. That kind of voltage and current is certainly sufficient to run a decent enough sized BLDC motor and/or recharge a battery, in flight.
I'm a little sceptical about hand launching something that heavy.
12.3kg !?
I agree with MarcS, I wasn't going to say any thing,but I call BS. There website is their dreams not reality. The are retired mil guys trying to attract $$$$$$.
Ok, I could not resist reading the data sheet...
Weight for maximum endurance: 12,3kg; Launch method: Hand launched... This is nearly impossible, especially when it comes to reliability and untrained person... My personal experience is that even 5kg is hard to handle...
It could be that this is meant by "unique launch system"...
Hmm, I don´t get the intention of the companies homepage. Lot´s of claims but not a single real picture in flight. Lot´s of CAD and a mockup? And I agree with robert about the patent issue... I´d like to see the claims.
Flying for the long time is possible, of course, has been done by modelers since years. But I never saw a 6 blade prop on these planes (more like one-blade props) and can´t imagine the benefit. It´s definetely less efficient and most likely more noisy (higher rpm, more interference..) .
Money making by selling the company??
aha - patent pending.
an agregation of features is/should not the base of a patent.
else nothing new.
swiss technology
no need to start a flame war.
but patents seems to be minefield everywhere.
and the chinese just copy the stuff ;-)
there are 3 different models, all having a different flight time. the wing span is one of the main things which changes the number of solar panels, hence the flight time changes.
watched the local news the other night. how about that, we have a new company at here at my home. there tied to a colorado company as well.