Blogs

Prepping for Flight

 I'd like to introduce SolarSight II, a long endurance solar powered UAV designed and developed by University of Michigan students in conjunction with MIT's Lincoln Laboratory. Over the past two years we've gone through a multi-phase project and are nearing completion with the delivery of an aircraft with a target endurance of 18+ hours. Moving toward this goal we've had a lot of work contributed from our members, electrical, mechanical, and aerospace alike.

The solution we've settled on is a 3.3 m span conventional configuration glider with a GaAs solar array (220 Emcore ATJ cells), Li-ion batteries (6s 10p 3100/3400 mAh), and a high efficiency brushless drive-train (Lehner-Motoren).

SolidWorks Rendering of Airframe

We've recently begun the flight test process with our most current airframe, which has been targeted for weight reduction and an optimized power system in order to achieve our endurance goals. This has been accelerated through the use of the APM 2.5 allowing data collection and various flight modes.

We're looking forward to flying with our full solar array in the coming weeks.

Project Webpage: http://solarbubbles.engin.umich.edu/~solarbubbles/index-2.html

RCGrous Webpage: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1839301

Phase II Aircraft Test Flights

Phase I Aircraft Wing Tip Cam (please feel free to skip to 1:00...)

Thanks for checking out our project,

Brian