Italian aerospace group Leonardo invests in solar-powered drones | Hacker News Reader

Italian aerospace group Leonardo invests in solar-powered drones

reuters.com

34 pointsprostoalex8 comments

there's almost nothing in this article, so here's some related links for anyone interested in the topic:

This guy has been iterating on building a solar drone for several years now, here's his latest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwbJJoe09DI

Here's a presentation on how multi-junction thin film gallium arsenide wafers can achieve a much much higher power-to-weight ratio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7zkGstEf-g&t=1456s

Here's a solar-electric two-seater motor-glider flying last month (ok not a drone): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37-QWbjrho0

the parts (flight controllers, composites, solar cells, batteries, motors) are mostly all in place now. its a game of integration engineering going forward (kinda like where tesla was when they started the roadster).

Tesla had Lotus make their chassis for the roadster (minimally modified Elise iirc).

I assume there's a suitable airframe manufacturer out there?

If I had the money I'd slap those solar cells (maybe $20k for 4kW) on this electric motor glider (~$150K): https://www.pipistrel-usa.com/taurus-electro/

also just nifty option, ardupilot supports autonomous thermaling now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwAX3cPvMqw

you could creating an autonomous piloting service that used a combination of thermal-hunting and solar-pv to dramatically cut the energy budget required of the batteries.

edit: re-thinking your question, I think the real answer is "the entire kit market". In america the regulations allow for people to build their own planes under a certain weight, so companies get around that by selling "kits" that the buyer has to finish assembling themself. so most of the <$100k air "plane" market is already a lotus-like frame you can do stuff with.

edit2: for instance, check out this absolute masterpiece of a website where you can buy an ANT-E kit: http://www.newmexicotrikes.com/ant/ant.html

edit3: or this thing https://www.ruppert-composite.ch/en/

the long continuous overhead wing of the Ruppert plane seems perfect for solar panels

the "foot launch" is hilarious

The news on the company homesite :

https://skydweller.aero/news/

provide some insights, they just acquired the SI-2 (and related assets and exclusive IP license ) from Solar Impulse:

https://aroundtheworld.solarimpulse.com/adventure

https://bdnewsnet.com/defence/uav/leonardo-invests-in-skydwe...

Skydweller Aero Inc, the company acquired, has a video on their website containing almost entirely stock footage with an awkwardly worded voiceover and a little footage of the Solar Impulse aircraft: https://skydweller.aero/