Solar Drones

Source: BAE A drone with a 150-foot wingspan just completed a 72-hour endurance trial near the English town of Farnborough. A solar-electric, fixed-wing drone, the PHASA-35 completed trials earlier this month in a simulated environment designed to model harsh stratospheric conditions. A collaborative effort by BAE Systems, Prismatic and the UK’s …

High Altitude, Long Endurance (HALE) drones have a set of commercial applications which differ significantly from those performed by standard quadcopters.  Often looking like something out of a science fiction movie, HALE UAVs have grand ambitions – like providing internet coverage to the entire globe, or cell phone coverage in …

Groundbreaking army analysis is giving drones their day in the solar – or at the very least half a day. The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory is empowering drones to remain aloft greater than 12 hours utilizing power from the solar and wind. Although the analysis is focusing on army functions, …

Alta Devices has a brand new place in the solar after garnering a contract from the Naval Research Laboratory for delivering lightweight photo voltaic drone know-how. Alta’s Hybrid Tiger program will combine analysis right into a single drone system designed for lengthy vary endurance. The program deploys high-efficiency versatile photo voltaic …

Riaan Meyer is used to engaged on massive scale renewable vitality tasks.  “The typical solar plant in Africa is just much bigger than it is in other countries,” says Meyer.  “And solar is booming on both ends – plants and residential. ”  Meyer’s firm GeoSUN is out in the sector …

Guest put up by Drone Industry Insights — To push the boundaries of drone flight efficiency, batteries should grow to be smaller and lighter. It seems that we reached a sure restrict relating to energy density. Lithium-Polymer (Li-Po) and Lithium-Ion (Li-ion) batteries have grow to be very small and reasonably priced, …

Cambridge startup Scanifly isn’t simply one other drone knowledge platform.  With a background in photo voltaic expertise and a transparent view of the worth proposition for drone knowledge, founder John Novak and his crew are combining applied sciences for the greatest in 3D modeling for the enterprise – and past. Starting with …