Airbus Solar Panels

It operates in the stratosphere at an average altitude of.

Airbus solar panels.

Zephyr is the world s leading solar electric stratospheric unmanned aerial vehicle uav. These cells are made of silicon and are very thin. It harnesses the sun s rays running exclusively on solar power above the weather and conventional air traffic. That s about 200 square meters of solar cells.

During daylight the solar panels charged the plane s batteries which make up a quarter of the craft s 2 3 tonne weight. More than 85 space missions have flown or are flying with our solar arrays all of which successfully deployed in space and perform as expected or even better still. Airbus in germany provided the solar arrays ottobrunn and key propulsion elements lampoldshausen. Airbus defence and space netherlands has provided satellites with power since 1979.

Airbus in spain provided control and electrical units and airbus in the netherlands provided radiator elements. In 1998 the remote controlled solar airplane pathfinder set an altitude record after reaching 80 000 feet. The wingspan of solar impulse 2 is 71 9 m 236 ft slightly less than that of an airbus a380 the world s largest passenger airliner but compared with the 500 ton a380 the carbon fibre solar impulse weighs only about 2 3 tonnes 5 100 lb little more than an average suv. The solar impulse has about the same wingspan as a 747 airplane and its wings are covered in nearly 12 000 solar cells.

Silicon is a semiconductor that conducts electricity in certain conditions while acting as an insulator in certain other conditions. Just like domestic solar roof panels the solar impulse 2 aircraft uses devices called photovoltaic cells or solar cells to generate electricity from sunlight. The unmanned aircraft a 75 kilogram zephyr offers what airbus describes as local satellite like services and runs on solar power. One hundred percent success.

A reputation we are proud of. The pilot also climbed to 29 000 feet during the day and glided down to.