Solar-powered aircraft pursues nonstop flight around the world
Farnborough Air Show 2024 – Day Three (aerosociety.com)
Oklahoma City-based Skydweller Aero, operator of the largest solar aircraft, is hoping to fly around the world nonstop, with no fuel, and no remote pilot. At a briefing on the third day of the air show, Skydweller President and COO, Barry Matusmori who is an ex-SpaceX exec, announced that after its aircraft – which has a wingspan larger than a Boeing 747 – completed the first entirely autonomous solar-powered flight, including take-off, flying and landing, in April, and has flown continuously for a maximum of five days and nights within the US, it is now seeking to complete a far longer mission to circumnavigate the globe. Matusmori said a route and date would be announced soon, however, the mission would validate the technology’s goal of staying aloft for 90 days or more.
The aircraft is designed to support several long-duration missions that have previously required a fleet of conventional aircraft, such as ISR in conflict zones, surveilling naval activity in contested waters, wildfire monitoring, and even border control. “Think of it as a very high-altitude base station that isn’t sitting on the ground, but sitting up in the air,” Matusmori said at the briefing. Furthermore, because it will be able to complete long stints without being refuelled, and instead being powered by solar cells that generate about 200,000 watts of electricity, the company claims the technology will be up to 100 times less expensive than conventional aircraft and will leave zero carbon footprint.
“The thing that we want to emphasise is that green matters, and the ability to be sustainable and protect the environment is an important aspect of what we’re doing,” said Matusmori. “If we can help push the notion that you can get to all parts of the Earth with a solar power plane, that’s a very big deal.”
The company was founded in 2017 and invested in by Leonardo. In 2019, Skydweller bought Solar Impulse 2 (SI2), an aircraft that completed the longest continuous solar-powered flight to date. However, all that remains from SI2 is its airframe – everything else has changed.
Matsumori explained that the unique part of Skydweller’s goal is that, while these types of missions have been completed by other companies before, whether flying an uncrewed, solar-powered, or completely unrefuelled aircraft, no one has accomplished all of those capabilities at once. Matsumori added: “The challenge is to put it all together and make it work so that it can fly continuously around the world. But that is what we are going to accomplish.”