Dec 2008: NEW PhD thesis Design of Solar Powered Airplanes for Continuous Flight available
Dec 2008: PhD thesis [pdf]
Dec 2008: PhD Exam Slides English [ppt] [pdf]
Dec 2008: PhD Exam Slides French [ppt] [pdf]
Dec 2008: Conceptual Design Program [Matlab] .


21st of June 2008 : NEW Continuous flight was demonstrated during a solar powered flight of more than 27 hours over 874.4 km what represents a Zürich-London trip. This is a world record for this size and using no thermal winds or altitude gain before the night. Detailled Report [pdf] ETH Life Artikel (German).


The goal of this project is to design and build a solar powered micro airplane for autonomous exploration. This system, named Sky-Sailor, is fully autonomous in navigation and power generation. Equipped with solar cells covering its wing, it retrieves energy from the sun in order to supply power to the propulsion system and the control electronics, and charge the battery with the surplus of energy. During the night, the only energy available comes from the battery, which discharges slowly until the next morning when a new cycle starts.
This project started in 2004 under a contract with European Space Agency to study the feasibility of a Martian Solair Airplane. The first prototype weighs 2.6 kg for a wingspan of 3.2 meters. The 216 silicone solar cells are able to deliver up to 90 W at noon during summer whereas the power consumption of the airplane is 16 W at level flight. The longest flight so far lasted 5 hours, but measurements validated the design and prove that 24h is possible. This attempt will be done this summer 2007.


Schedule:

  • Spring 2004 : feasibility study
  • Summer 2004 - Spring 2005 : Design and realization of the lightweight structure and the solar generator (Solar Panels, MPPT,Battery)
  • Summer 2005 : Test of the first prototype using MP2028g autopilot, validation of the concept
  • Fall 2005 - Summer 2006 : Development of our own autopilot hardware, creation of an aerodynamic model of the airplane, development of a model-based controller and realization of the ground control station
  • Summer 2006 - Spring 2007 : Tests and improvement of hardware, reliability checks and preparation for 24h flight
  • Summer 2007 : Long duration flights were attempted. Sky-Sailor flew two times more than 10 hours autonomously, 330 km, using solely solar energy.
    Sky-Sailor Tests 2007 [pdf]
  • Fall 2007 : USA West Coast tour with Swissnex, Presentation of Sky-Sailor Project at UC Berkeley, Stanford, Caltech, NASA Ames, JPL and Dryden. Report of the event in the following media:
  • SwissInfo [english] [français]
  • DRS [mp3-deutsch]
  • 24 Heures [pdf]
  • Summer 2008 : 24 hours flight planned with new 240Wh/kg battery. In september, the Phd thesis "Design of Solar Powered Airplanes for Continuous Flight", presenting a design methodology valid for MAV as well as for manned solar airplanes, will be availble online here. Abstract [pdf]
  • 21th of June 2008 : NEW Continuous flight was demonstrated during a solar powered flight of more than 27 hours over 874.4 km what represents a Zürich-London trip. This is a world record for this size and using no thermal winds or altitude gain before the night. Detailled Report [pdf] ETH Life Artikel (German).






    • New publications:

    Noth, André, Design of Solar Powered Airplanes for Continuous Flight, PhD Thesis, Autonomous Systems Lab, ETH Zürich, Switzerland, December 2008. [pdf]

     

    Noth, André, Siegwart, Roland, Engel, Walter Design of Solar Powered Airplanes for Continuous Flight, Aircraft & Spacecraft Systems Design Lecture Notes, Autonomous Systems Lab, ETH Zürich, Switzerland, December 2006. [pdf]

     

    Noth, André, History of Solar Flight, Aircraft & Spacecraft Systems Design Lecture Notes, Autonomous Systems Lab, ETH Zürich, Switzerland, December 2006. [pdf] [version française]

    last modified: Apr. 2008