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Comment by thinkcontext | Hacker News Reader

Manned flight doesn't seem to be a good application for solar aircraft given the weight and speed limitations. Solar drones seem a much better fit. Airbus seems furthest along with their Zephyr [0], it has stayed aloft for 14 days (!). They are targeting the military as a customer and are marketing it as an alternative to a satellite, that is, an indefinite surveillance capability.

Facebook has a similar program, Aquila, which is aimed at providing internet access. They just recently had first flight of a full scale version [1].

[0] https://airbusdefenceandspace.com/our-portfolio/military-air...

[1] http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/07/facebo...

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To a large extent it would seem the Solar Impulse team agrees with you:

> What we are working on now [...] is to build an airplane which has no pilot. [...] an unmanned version which could fly six months, maybe one year

[1] http://videos.usatoday.net/Brightcove2/29906170001/2016/01/2... 0:47 onwards

> Solar drones seem a much better fit

Does that mean you could have a drone permanently hovering just above the clouds, taking constant video or photo surveillance, periodically sending data to whomever, all of this powered entirely by the sun without ever needing to come down or stop?

Solar aircraft at this stage (large, slow) have to stay in the sun, are sensitive to wind, and require periodic maintenance. In principle what you describe is basically the goal; aviation equivalent of a nuclear submarine that can stay in flight for weeks, months, or more.

Yes, that's what Facebook is aiming for with their Aquila project, for example:

https://code.facebook.com/posts/268598690180189

(Except they want to provide wireless internet, not surveillance.)

* they want to provide wireless internet for surveillance.

Facebook's raison d'etre is to surveil you.

Short answer, yes. In practice they would probably switch off with another drone after some period of time (months?) to do a maintenance check.

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