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First Solar Powered Helicopter Launched

It had to happen – it was just a question of when!

It may only be a remote controlled one at the moment but, who knows, we may eventually be seeing a full size helicopter powered by solar panels taking off to venture out on a rescue mission in the North Sea at some point in the future.

Could solar panels eventually be used to power a full-sized helicopter?
(image credit: osde8info)

If you have already read about developments like the Helios Wing and Solar Impulse then you may not feel that what we have said above is but a distant dream. After all – almost anything is possible. It cannot be too far away before we see the conventional aircraft being powered in some capacity using solar panels even if it is just to operate such things as the lighting.

Queen Mary, University of London, is renowned as being a research university and a number of students from there took on the engineering challenge of developing a remote controlled helicopter that is powered solely using solar panels. They have called it a “SolarCopter” and it is believed to be the first of its kind anywhere in the world.

At the present time, the helicopter can only manage to make short flights but this is expected to change as soon as the research team has installed a storage system.

The research team created the SolarCopter in the design of a quadrotor that means that it has four rotors. The rotors are propelled with power that has been provided by a solar panel in just the same process that a normal battery powered one does. The best thrust to weight ratio was obtained by utilising a combination of a solar panel that had been suitably optimized, a frame that had been uniquely designed and a system of propulsion that was extremely efficient.

The possible uses for this invention are immense as it could eventually be utilised for monitoring the migration of animals, search and rescue missions and also for surveillance operations.

We will, of course, keep you up to date with any future developments about this interesting creation.

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