On 12 August 2025, the HB-SXA plane flew to an altitude of 31,288 ft, setting a world document for the best flight ever by a solar-powered airplane. The plane, constructed by Swiss firm SolarStratos, may have two future missions: to show the aptitude of solar energy for plane and to review and function within the higher environment. One other firm, Photo voltaic Flight, primarily based in California, can also be engaged on a number of designs for solar-powered planes.
“Up there, going through the solar that powers our wings, flying with out burning a single drop of gasoline is an indescribable feeling…a second out of time,” mentioned the HB-SXA pilot Raphaël Domjan of Switzerland.
HB-SXA Photo voltaic-Powered Aircraft Climbs to a Document 31,288 Ft
On 12 August, the HB-SXA solar-powered airplane took off from Sion Airport in Switzerland. Through the 5-hour flight, Raphaël Domjan took it as much as 31,288 ft over Switzerland’s Valais Alps. The plane relied on photo voltaic vitality and thermal updrafts to ascend. A 50-kilowatt electrical motor operating at 2,200 RPMs powers the airplane, and it produces no air pollution. Its forward-mounted propeller has three blades and a 6.23-foot diameter.
It additionally has an 81.36-foot wingspan. The HB-SXA has a 236.8-square-foot area of photo voltaic cells overlaying the wings. These cells present vitality to lithium-ion batteries. The airplane’s fuselage and wings are constructed from carbon fiber, which provides them a mixture of sunshine weight and power.
Challenges and Benefits of Photo voltaic-Powered Planes
The event of solar-powered planes presents some distinctive challenges for designers. NASA and varied subcontractors have been engaged on solar-powered plane for the reason that Eighties. These embody the Pathfinder, Centurion, and Helios. A few of them have wingspans as broad as 737 jets.
Tony Tao, a PhD pupil at MIT, mentioned an vital problem is that the solar and airborne planes are each transferring, which always modifications the angle at which the solar strikes the photo voltaic panels. The result’s that they don’t seize as a lot vitality as a photo voltaic panel on a stationary object like a roof.
Tao added that the connection between a solar-powered airplane’s pace and the ability it wants to maneuver the airplane ahead signifies that the panels solely seize about ten to twenty % of the vitality from the solar. Extra merely, this ends in a most pace of solely about 50 miles per hour.
One other design issue in solar-powered planes is that they often have lengthy, skinny wings and delicate photo voltaic panels. This makes them weak throughout unhealthy climate.
A bonus of solar-powered planes is that they don’t want to hold gasoline or depend on engines that combust oxygen. This permits them to fly at increased altitudes than most varieties of plane. Tao added that these planes are most likely higher suited to missions like loitering over areas for knowledge assortment and surveillance as an alternative of carrying cargo or giant numbers of passengers.
Sunseeker Duo Has Tandem Seats in Cockpit
The Photo voltaic Flight firm in California is engaged on two distinctive designs of solar-powered planes. One, the Sunseeker Duo, is likely one of the solely photo voltaic plane with two seats. The seats are subsequent to one another within the cockpit. Its wingspan is 72 ft, and it has an empty weight of 617 kilos.
It additionally has 1510 photo voltaic cells on its wings and tail surfaces. The cells energy a battery pack within the fuselage that gives electrical energy to a 15-kilowatt motor mounted on the entrance of the vertical stabilizer. Different options of the Sunseeker Duo are a retractable touchdown gear and folding wings that permit it to take up no extra hangar house than a traditional mild airplane. Additionally it is doable to take the airplane aside and pack it right into a trailer.
Firm Creating Six-Passenger Photo voltaic-Powered Aircraft
Photo voltaic Flight can also be engaged on a six-passenger solar-powered airplane. Nonetheless within the design stage, the airplane’s wing may have a excessive camber to provide it quick take-off and touchdown functionality. The first supply of energy shall be photo voltaic cells charging a lithium battery pack, however the firm plans to supply an non-compulsory vary extender. This shall be a generator operating on unleaded auto fuel.
