A Swiss aviation project is on its way to revolutionize the world of air transportation with its solar powered stratosphere penetrating plane. The plane SolarStratos Stratospheric Solar Airplane, took its maiden low-altitude test flight on May 5th, 2017. The airplane uses nothing more than pure sunshine and is a two seater plane with an aim to demonstrate the possibilities of doing away with the use of fossil fuels. The plane is designed by Calin Gologan from Elektra-Solar GmbH. The plane took off for its maiden flight from Payerne, Switzerland and reached an altitude of 300 meters (about 1000 feet) and is next expected to take longer test flights at higher altitudes of about 82,000 feet. The plane is about 28 feet long and includes roughly 238 square feet of PV on its wings, which enables the airplane a 24-hour flight autonomy. A 20 kWh lithium-ion battery pack is powered by the PV. The plane weighs just at 450 kilos and uses a 2.2 m 4-blade propeller powered by a 32kW electric motor spinning at 2200 RPM. “We must continue to work hard to learn how to harness the potential of this solar-powered treasure, said Raphael Domjan, project head.
Clean Technica
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