Double plane solar-powered Sunseeker Duo

Among all the advances made recently in the technology of solar energy, the development of the aircraft, which would be able to gather enough energy through sunlight to not only get in the air for a long time, but also to bring a second person, turned out to be quite a difficult task.

The team at Solar Flight recently set themselves the task of creating a double of the first solar airplane — Sunseeker Duo.

A week ago the company announced that the last few months have been spent on flight test aircraft and the results obtained provide promising perspectives for achieving the objectives.

Company Solar Flight has attracted attention in October 2012, when project leader Eric Raymond (Eric Raymond) has announced plans to establish a solar plane with sufficient power characteristics, and aerodynamics, capable of carrying two people.





The company's successful crowdfunding fundraiser brought Raymond one step closer to the realization of this concept, it has completed Assembly of the aircraft and on 17 December 2013 Sunseeker Duo took to the air.

Since that time, the team tested various aspects of the functioning of the aircraft systems, such as monitoring the battery system, motor, drive screw, the folding mechanism of the wings and the rails of the chassis. Some instability was detected during the test flight mode of a glider, was eliminated by adding additional solar panels on the horizontal stabilizer.



Today, according to Solar Flights, the aircraft offers excellent performance both in the air and on the ground, surpassing its predecessor, Sunseeker II in all aspects. The company claims that the Duo is able to move in the air in cruise mode on solar power with two people on Board more than 12 hours.





The wingspan of the Sunseeker Duo is 22 meters, weight 280 kg. 1510 solar cells cover the surface of the wings and tail of the aircraft, collecting solar energy, which is stored in the block of lithium-polymer batteries, located inside the fuselage. The maximum power of the engine of the aircraft is 25 kW more than the team had hoped to install initially.

"The lithium batteries today have seven times more capacity than NiCd, which we used in Sunseeker I," says Raymond. "When we first sketched the concept for the plane, we could not even imagine battery with over 20% efficiency. This dream is about a technology that has become a reality".





The focus of the company development Sunseeker Duo not only to get ahead of a few design and technology, but in order to produce something that can serve as a current high-performance aircraft.

"We really work hard that the plane was fully tested and ready for passenger flights by this summer already," says Irene Raymond, the wife and project partner Eric. "There is nothing more exciting than watching the Earth from above. It will be even more beautiful from the cockpit of the plane on solar energy."



Source: facepla.net