solar Archives

Airbus says its solar-powered Zephyr HAPS drone set new records during summer tests

Bruce Crumley - Oct. 11th 2021 7:40 am PT

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Airbus has announced its Zephyr solar-powered high-altitude platform system (HAPS) drone has completed a barrage of summer tests in Arizona, including what the European aviation consortium described as a record-setting 36 days of flight time spread over a two-day mission.

SolarXOne: fully electric, solar-powered autonomous drone

Bruce Crumley - Aug. 30th 2021 4:40 am PT

Autonomous Flight solar

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French company XSun specializes in solar-powered drones – and has produced a pretty impressive craft, indeed. Its SolarXOne fixed-wing aircraft not only soaks up and stores the sun rays that power it, but also packs onboard tech that allows it to make its own decisions during flights.

Facebook’s solar drone to serve wifi, stay aloft 90 days – alpha model goes to museum

John Fitzgerald Weaver - Dec. 24th 2017 9:52 pm PT

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Facebook’s (soon to be) solar-powered, wifi serving, laser mesh network drone, the Aquila, is retiring to the V&A – the world’s leading museum of art and design – in London.

The plane has completed two successful test flights, one each in 2016 and 2017. Facebook’s goal is to create a broad network of technology to deliver internet connectivity to the 1.6 billion on earth without access.

Solar drone capable of quasi-perpetual flight tested in the Arctic

John Fitzgerald Weaver - Oct. 20th 2017 2:43 pm PT

Drone solar Arctic

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Researchers testing cutting-edge unmanned aerial vehicle technology went to the 24 hours a day sunlight of Greenland to power ‘perpetual’ solar drone flights.

The main goal of the project from the manufacturer’s perspective was to find a practical application of a solar-powered drone that could fly indefinitely, as there’d been few real-world uses. To partial success, the group tested the ‘First-ever solar-powered flight in the Arctic’ on June 20th.