From Sunrise to Solar-Impulse 34 Years of Solar Powered Flight

Abstract

The solar cell was invented in 1954.  It lasted twenty years until the first solar powered aircraft Sunrise 1 was designed and successfully flown.  Several aviation pioneers flew battery buffered solar aircraft in 1979 and later.  Dr. Paul MacCready was the first to fly a man carrying aircraft on solar power alone.  He also won the Henry Kremer Solar Aircraft Prize for flying his Solar Challenger from Paris to England in 1982.  The Berblinger Solar Aircraft Competition for practical use solar aircraft was won with icaré 2 from Stuttgart University in 1996.  With unmanned, high altitude, long endurance solar aircraft altitudes up to 29,500 m and durations up to 54 hours were reached.  With the ultra light, high capacity lithium battery technology developed in the past years, enough solar energy can be stored for flights even during the whole night.  The Swiss Solar-Impulse shall make all night flights by 2009, long distance flights by 2010, and the highlight will be a round the world flight by 2011.