ACE Engineering College

Department Of Mechanical Engineering

Technical Seminar On

Solar Powered Aircraft

Guided by Presented by
R.MOUNIKA
Assistant Professor MECH Dept. V.ANIL (19AG5A0342)
ACE Engineering College, Ghatkesar, Hyderabad.
Solar Powered Aircraft
 CONTENTS
• Introduction
• Birth of solar powered aircraft
• Types of Solar powered aircraft
• Weight of a solar powered aircraft
• Why is it important to use solar powered aircraft
• Current progress of solar powered aircraft
• Working of a solar powered air craft
• Economic potential
• Disadvantages of solar powered aircraft
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 lot of it.The
sunlight that heats the Earth in an hour as 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
the sunlight.
Over a considerable period of time these aircrafts have been modified and now these
aeroplanes can fly around the world even without stopping once even during the night-
time. These aircrafts have the capacity to stay in the air for as long as 26 hours. Thus if
solar powered aircrafts are introduced on a large scale it will make our world a global
village making air travel eco-friendly and extremely cheap. Solar powered aircrafts can
also play a pioneering role in the development of the economy in developing countries
like india where air travel is still out of the bounds for the poorer sections of the
society. Thus we can say that introduction of solar powered aircrafts will usher in a
revolution that might change the belief which the common man has about air travel.

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Solar powered aircraft during presentation to the press
Birth of solar powered aircraft
• On the 4th of november 1974, the first flight of a solar powered aircraft took place
on the dry lake at camp irwin, california. Sunrise I, designed by R.J.Boucher from
astro flight inc. Under a contract with ARPA, flew 20 minutes at an altitude of
around 100 m during its inaugural flight. An improved version, sunrise II, was built
and tested on the 12th of september 1975.The new cells with a higher efficiency of
14%, delivered a powered of 600w.
Types of solar powered aircraft
There are broadly two types of solar powered aircraft
• Long wing
• Short wing
Weight
There is a mass difference between the weight of a normal aircraft and solar aircraft. A
normal plane weight 560 ton and solar plane weights just 2 tons.
Why is it important to use solar powered aircraft?
Cause, fossile fuels are on the verge of finishing and current planes produce heat which
causes global warming.
Working of a solar powered aircraft
When sunlight falls on the solar panel, the solar panel absorbs the energy and uses it by
the help of inverter where the energy is converted to AC or DC.
Economic potential
According to adrian scott, a member of the research team, he says that once the plane
is modified and made ready to carry heavy load and specially passengers this plane
(solar impulse) will be one of the biggest competitors to boeing and airbus. He also
added by saying that this plane(solar impulse) once fully modified and upgraded to the
levels of any commercial plane will bring a revolution in the world of commercial jets
as the solar impulse plane doesnt require any aviation fuel to power itself and can fly
in the air simply by charging itself from the energy gained from the sun’s light.
Advantages of solar powered aircraft
Environment-friendly: 
• Clearly, the biggest advantage of solar powered flights, and the factual main purpose
of developing them is that they depend on a clean form of energy that causes zero
harm to the environment.
Free energy source:
• Solar energy is a clean, free, and renewable source of energy, which gives it a grand
advantage over fossil fuel.
Disadvantages of solar powered aircraft
Weather dependency:
• Though this is true for all types of aircraft, weather changes impact traditional flights to a
less extent than it does solar powered flights. 
• While the weather can delay the schedule of traditional aircraft or make flying it a more
difficult task, solar powered aircraft will not be able to fly except in specific weather
conditions – especially in long-distance flights as it would need to recharge while it is up in
the air.
Expensive equipment:
• While the energy source in itself is essentially free, the equipment and technologies required
to harness and utilize solar energy are extremely expensive considering the scale on which it
would need to be used to fly single-rider aircraft, let alone the commercial-use airplanes.
Conclusion
• The shift towards renewable energy sources generally, and in the aviation industry
specifically, is indeed a positive step towards preserving the environment and
decelerating climate change. However, solar powered airplanes have a very long way
to go before they can act as a complete alternative for fossil fuels.
• That being said, solar aircraft in its current and predicted future forms, can still be
useful in fields like atmospheric research and communications. We can always use
less consumed fossil fuels.
THANK YOU