M-DIT POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE

ULLIYERI, KOZHIKODE, KERALA www.mditpoly.in Approved

by AICTE New Delhi & Govt of Kerala

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

A SEMINAR REPORT ON

SOLAR AIRCRAFT
Submitted By

HISHAM ABDULLA PK
REG NO : 2001439

FINAL YEAR MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

2020 -2023 BATCH

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 M-DIT POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE
ULLIYERI, KOZHIKODE, KERALA www.mditpoly.in Approved by
AICTE New Delhi & Govt of Kerala

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the seminar work entitled solar aircraft is a bonafied
record of the work done by Mr Hisham Abdulla Pk (Reg no : 2001439)
towards the partial fulfillment of the required to the award of diploma in
Mechanical Engineering during the academic year 2020-2023 under theboard
of technical education Kerala state
Place :

Date :

HEAD OF DEPT STAFF IN CHARGE

MR. HASIB N V MR. ABHILASH J K

LECTURER LECTURER

MEDept MEDept

INTERNAL EXAMINER EXTERNAL EXAMINER

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I Wish to express my heartiest gratitude to all teachers and Mechanical Engineering

Department for their parental advice in achieving the necessary detail regarding this
report and also thank my classmates for helping me for the successful completion of
my seminar work

Hisham Abdulla Pk

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 ABSTRACT
Generally domain Aircraft uses conventional fuel. These fuel having limited life, high cost
and pollutant. Also nowadays price of petrol and other fuels are going to be higher, because of
scarcity of those fuels. So there is great demand of use of non-exhaustible unlimited source of
energy like solar energy. Solar aircraft is one of the ways to utilize solar energy. Solar aircraft
uses solar panel to collect the solar radiation for immediate use but it also store the remaining
part for the night flight. This paper intended to stimulate research on renewable energy sources
for aviation. In future solar powered airplanes could be used for different types of aerial
monitoring and unmanned flights. This review paper briefly shows history, application and use
of solar aircraft. We are focusing on design and fabrication of solar aircraft which is unmanned
prototype.

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 CONTENT
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................... 1

Principle of operation .................................................................................................................... 2

WORKING OF SOLAR AIRCRAFT .......................................................................................... 8

WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO USE SOLAR AIRCRAFT? ........................................................ 9

2 HISTORY ................................................................................................................................. 9

Unmanned Solar Powered Airplanes: ......................................................................................... 10

Manned Solar Airplanes: ............................................................................................................ 10

3 DESIGN METHOD ................................................................................................................ 10

Solar Cell ................................................................................................................................ 10

CURRENT AND VOLTAGE OF SOLAR CELL .................................................................... 11

MAXIMUM POWERPOINT TRACKER ................................................................................. 11

POWER STORAGE .................................................................................................................. 11

ELECTROCHEMICAL BATTERIES ...................................................................................... 12

ELECTRIC MOTOR.................................................................................................................. 12

PROPELLER ............................................................................................................................. 13

AERODYNAMICS OF WINGS ............................................................................................... 13

ADVANTAGES……................................................................................................................. 16

APPLICATIONS ....................................................................................................................... 17

CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................... 18

REFERANCE ............................................................................................................................19

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 WORKING OF SOLAR AIRCRAFT .................................................................................. 9

Figure 2 AIRCRAFT ......................................................................................................................... 10
Figure 3 WIGHT ............................................................................................................................. 16

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 1 INTRODUCTION
Energy comes in different forms. Light is a form of energy. Sun is source of energy called
“sunlight”. Sunshine is free and never gets used up. Also, there is a lot of it. The sunlight that heats
the Earth in an hour has more energy than the people of the world use in a year. A little device called
a solar cell can make electricity right from sunlight. The dream of flight powered only by the sun’s
energy or sunlight has long motivated scientists and hobbyists. A solar aircraft is one which collects
energy from the sun by means of photovoltaic solar cells. The energy may be used to drive electric
motor to power the aircraft. Such airplanes store excess solar energy in batteries for night use. Also
there are rapidly increasing traffic problems in world and in our country also, so it is required to go
for such small solar aircrafts which can be used for transporting goods or materials between places
at short distance. Using solar panels there is more space due to escape of engines and turbines. Quite
a few manned and unmanned solar aircraft have been developed and flown. a 100% clean electric
airplane powered only by solar energy and hydrogen. The goal is to design an airplane, which will
use only renewable energies with no greenhouse gas emission and also to decrease noise pollution.
There were photovoltaic cells affixed on the wing and on the horizontal tail supply power for the
take off and for on-board electric supply. An electric engine which is more silent than heat engines.

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Principle of operation

Our basic principle is to use solar power by means of aircraft. And this thing can be done by solar
panels which cover the whole surface of wing. This panels converts radiative energy into electric
energy. This electric energy is used to charge battery which drives electric motor. Propeller which
is mounted on motor shaft produces thrust continuously. Because of this, aircraft is moved and
force is produced on wing by dynamic effect of air which opposes the downward force of weight.
During the night, the only energy available comes from the battery. A solar cell or photovoltaic
cell is a device that converts solar energy into electricity by the photovoltaic effect. It is very
widely used in space application because it allows a clean and long-duration source of energy
requiring almost no maintenance. Solar cells are composed of various semiconducting materials,
constituting one or more layers.

• Solar power conversion into electric energy by means of aircraft.

• It can be done by solar panels which covers the definite surface area of wings.
• A convertor ensures that the solar panels are working at their maximum power point.
• The electric energy is used to charge battery which drives electric motor.
• Propeller is mounted on motor shaft produces thrust continuously

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 WORKING OF SOLAR AIRCRAFT
• When Sunlight falls on the solar panel , the solar panel absorbs the energy and uses it by
the help of inverter which the energy is converted into AC ( Alternating Current ) or (
Direct Current ).

Figure 11WORKING OF SOLAR AIRCRAFT

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WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO USE SOLAR AIRCRAFT

It is important to use Solar Aircraft because the fossil fuels are finishing day by day and It also
release heat which is causing Global Warming.

Figure 2AIRCRAFT

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 2 HISTORY

It is manned solar-powered aircraft that was designed by David Williams and produced by Solar
Powered Aircraft Co. The planning of the aircraft was started in 1979. It first flew in 2014 across
the Asia to America. The Helios Prototype solar-electric airplane was an uninhabited aerial vehicle
(UAV), were developed as technology demonstrators under Environmental Research Aircraft and
Sensor Technology (ERAST) project. Prior to its loss during flight in June 2003, the Helios
Prototype set a world altitude record for propeller-driven aircraft of almost 97,000 feet.

Their are two types of solar powered airplanes as follows,

Unmanned Solar Powered Airplanes:

• Sunrise I (1974)
• Solaris
(1976)
• Solar Excel (1990)

Manned Solar Airplanes:

• Solar Riser (1979)
• Solar Challenger (1981)
• elinet (1998)
• Solar Impuse And Solar Impuse 2 (2009)

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 3 DESIGN METHOD
The design methodology consists of simple 5 parameters linked to the design of the airplane
and they are as follows,

• Solar Cell
• Energy Storage[Battery]
• Electric Motor
• Aerodynamic of Wings
• Propeller
• MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracker)

SOLAR IRRADIANCE
Solar Irradiance is a measure of the irradiance (Power per unit area on the Earth's surface)
produced by the Sun in the form of electromagnetic radiation.

CURRENT AND VOLTAGE OF SOLAR CELL

When the cell pads are not connected, no current produced and the voltage equals V= 0, the
open circuit voltage.

• When it is short circuited, the voltage is zero but the current equals ISC.
• In between these two points where in both cases the power retrieved is zero, there is
working point, called the maximum power point.
• The current of a solar cell is proportional to its area and varies almost linearly with the light
intensity

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MAXIMUM POWERPOINT TRACKER

• A solar cell has a working point on its current to voltage curve where the power retrieved is
maximum.
• The constantly changing irradiance conditions, and thus get the highest amount of energy, a
so called Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT) is required.
• An MPPT is basically DC/DC converter with variable and adjustable gain between the input
and the output voltage. The input being the solar panels and the output the battery.

• It contains electronics that monitor both the current and the voltage on each side.

POWER STORAGE

When the energy production is not constant and continuous, a good energy storage method is
necessary.
Different ways to store energy:
1) Chemical (hydrogen, biofuels) 2)
Electrochemical (batteries, fuel cells)

3) Electrical (capacitor, super capacitor, superconducting magnetic energy storage)

4) Mechanical (compressed air, flywheel)
5) Thermal

• In the case of a solar airplane, the gravimetric energy density also called specific energy.
The peak power are the most crucial parameters that determine the choice of the energy
storage method.
• Therefore in present case, the electrochemical batteries and the fuel cells are the two best
candidates.

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ELECTROCHEMICAL BATTERIES

• Electrochemical batteries are energy storage devices, which are able to convert chemically
stored energy into electrical energy during discharging.
• They are composed of a cathode and an anode, made of two dissimilar metals that are in
contact with an electrolyte.
• When all elements are in contact with each other, a flow of electron is produced.

ELECTRIC MOTOR

• An electric motor uses electrical energy to produce mechanical energy.

There are a very large variety of electric motors that coexist because of the different supply

• In the present case, DC (Direct Current or Continuous Current) motor will be used as solar
airplane is designed to run on DC electric power supplied by a battery.

The advantages of DC motors are numerous:

Very precise speed control.

• High efficiency.
• Reliability with longer lifetime (no brush abrasion and no ionizing sparks).
Their power to weight ratio is exceptionally high.

PROPELLER

• The propeller is a device consisting of a set of two or more twisted, airfoil shaped blades

• The blades are mounted around a shaft and spun to provide propulsion of a vehicle through

a fluid. It accelerates incoming air particles creating a reaction force called thrust.

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AERODYNAMICS OF WINGS

• The design and analysis of wings of aircraft is principle application of science of

aerodynamics.
• Once a plane leaves the ground, it is acted upon by four aerodynamic forces. Thrust

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 • Weight
• Lift
• The lift maintains the airplane compensating the weight.
• The drag that is compensated by the thrust of the propeller.

WEIGHT

There is mass difference between the weight of a normal aircraft and a solar aircraft t.
A normal plane weight 560 Tons and A Solar Plane weight 2 tons.

Figure 3WIGHT LLLLLLLLLLLLL

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 4 ADVANTAGES

• Sunlight is renewable day after day.

• Solar energy is free and we save money.
• Solar energy is a clean energy.
• It does not pollute air.
• Solar energy which not used during the day can be stored in a battery system for night.
• We wouldn’t have to worry as much about future energy sources.
• People can save money.

DISADVANTAGES

• Collecting solar energy depends on location and weather conditions.

• Only 1 or 2 people can sit in aircraft.
• Cost is high.
• Solar panels and other collectors take up a lot of space.
• May cause hazards to the birds.
• Hazards to eyesight from solar reflectors.
• We cannot produce solar electricity at night.

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 5 Applications
As a transport vehicle to reduce cost and to increase overall profit to reduce fuel cost. Use of
free energy means nothing to invest in transportation of materials and get free transportation
after investing in small aircraft.
One main reason of traffic is due to the big and bulky transporting vehicles so by using small
lighter aircraft traffic problem can be reduce.
Fast transportation of materials so some expensive material can also transport in less time.
One kind of solar aircraft is in astrology industries as a transporting vehicle used to go in space
or on neighbour planets. 6. Use of solar aircraft worldwide can make fast development of
countries.
Use of Solar Energy as source of energy will increase as conventional fuels are reducing d

• Future of aviation field.

• Future utility to solve traffic problems.
• Device used for Astronomical field.
• Utility of solar aircraft in transporting which can be helpful to
• reduce cost of transportation.
• Lower cost of transportation than conventional vehicles.

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 6 Conclusion

Established airline companies aren’t very interested in solar-powered planes. Aviation is a

capital-intensive industry and ensuring passenger safety can never be compromised even for
sensible or environmentally friendly reasons. Most aviation companies find solar powered
planes to presently be a risky proposal. Using a radically different airplane design would cost
them billions of dollars, and if it goes wrong, those companies would be ruthless lyput out of
business. Thus, solar planes – for now! – still need a lot of improvement in termsof carrying
capacity, speed and safety when navigating seasonal variations.

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