One of the most frustrating parts about flying a quadcopter is having to regularly swap battery packs, as this massively limits what you can do with said quadcopter, never mind its effective range. Obviously, having the sun power said quadcopter during a nice sunny day would be a much better experience, but how workable is this really? While airplanes have used solar power to stay aloft practically indefinitely, a quadcopter needs significantly more power, so is it even possible? Recently, [Luke Maximo Bell] set out to give it a whirl.
His quadcopter build uses a large but very lightweight carbon fiber frame, with large 18″ propellers. This provides the required space and lift for the solar panel array, which uses 27 razor-thin panels in a 9×3 grid configuration supported by a lightweight support frame.
Due to the lightweight construction, the resulting quadcopter actually managed to fly using just the direct power from the panels. It should be noted however that it is an exceedingly fragile design, to the point that [Luke]’s cat broke a panel in the array when walking over it while it was lying upside-down on a table.
After this proof of concept, [Luke] intends to add more panels, as well as a battery to provide some buffer and autonomous flying hardware, with the goal of challenging the world record for the longest flying drone. For the rest of us, this might make for a pretty cool idea for a LoRaWAN mesh node or similar, where altitude and endurance would make for a great combo.
I’m impressed that this works at all. Makes me wonder what is possible in terms of solar powered airplanes – given that quad rotors are not particularly energy efficient things…
SPOILER: It doesn’t. There are li-pols hidden in those carbon fibre tubes.
Are you sure? The body of the quadcopter seems light enough to get by with the amount of power generated by the panels. I’m no expert and haven’t ran the numbers but it still seems within the realm of possibility.
I guess
A 747-8s wingspan is 224 ft 5 in at the root they are 48.7 feet long tapering to 12.1 feet at the tips. That gives you roughly 6,824 sq ft of wing surface. Youve got ~250 feet of length in the fuselage with a width just over 20 feet. If you were to wrap it completely with solar panels, Ignoring the inefficiencies caused by indirect exposure this would cause, youd have around 15700 square feet of panels on the fuselage.
So in total a 747-8 could squeeze in around 22,500 square feet of panels. highly efficient solar panels can theoretically capture a maximum of approximately 472.5 kilowatts (kW) of power
The Boeing 747-8 has a maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of approximately 987,000 to 990,000 pounds (447,700 to 449,056 kg). with estimated power consumption around 240 megawatts (MW) for takeoff and approximately 60 MW during high-altitude cruise.
472,5 kw of power is less than that produced by the engine of a 4729 pound Cesna 208.
So the potential of solar power for fixed wing aircraft is pretty poor unless youre talking about ultralight weight powered gliders and drones.
IMHO, NASA’s Helios Flying Wing reincarnated as a copter on a shoestring budget. Add some aerodynamics and it will be Osprey on a budget.
what if they used “double-side” pv panels aligned vetrtically below the cruciform struts?
Random idea, use a weather balloon covered in solar panels, then hang a drone below it on an umbilical. Use the drone to tow it around or to keep it on station. — google say it already exists, https://en.reset.org/this-helium-powered-h-aero-drone-can-fly-for-24-hours/
Why on earth use a drone for a LoRaWAN node when a tethered balloon would work so much better and so much more reliably???
I was out last week with a 250 gram toy quadcopter and struggling with trying to bring it back in what I had thought was a light breeze.
I expect this solar panel thing will flip over and fly better as a kite.