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Registered Member #4362
Joined: Sat Jan 21 2012, 03:44AM
Location: Texas
Posts: 98
Friendly competition between my dad and me. We are building solar powered airplanes to see who's will fly the furthest.
Mostly amazon purchases.
Sky streak balsa wood plane. 1x1.5" poly silicon solar cells at .5v / .17w each. 6x15mm drone replacement motor. 46mm twin blade prop. Also drone replacement.
He is going with a microcontroller setup to steer into the sunlight. Mine will be simple. Driven by luck. ;) Name and address on the bottom of the wing so possibly returned if found.
Registered Member #162
Joined: Mon Feb 13 2006, 10:25AM
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3140
Unless your dad's plane can fly at 1667 km/hr, heading towards the sun will not make much difference, but your plane with fixed steering should fly in a large circle - if there is no wind. - on a sunny day.
Nice contest, please keep us updated ... good luck !
P.S. paint the bottom a colour that will contrast with the sky, e.g. red, black ...
P.P.S. the biggest problem that I forsee is; when your two planes fly in different directions, which one will your dad follow in the car
P.P.P.S. if you put your name and address, telephone number, and a message like IF YOU FOUND THIS PLANE YOU CAN KEEP IT PLEASE CONTACT ME TO TELL ME WHERE YOU FOUND IT THANK YOU you are more likely to get a phone call, I think.
When they call, suggest that they could do the same, adding their name to the list. If you are very lucky, your plane could fly very very far !
Registered Member #162
Joined: Mon Feb 13 2006, 10:25AM
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3140
not fair ! a battery and boost converter on a solar powered plane .... the solar power should be used for ALL onboard electrical requirements, if not then you should be allowed a LiPo of weight equal to your fathers battery + converter + controller + servos etc. or extra solar panels of equivalent weight ;)
a thought: if you design your plane to fly in a small (e.g. 100m) circle, always climbing as hard as it can, you could watch it gain height for a long time before loosing sight of it, and the stronger winds higher up would give distance to the flight. This approach makes the fixed circling of your plane a beneficial design feature rather than an unavoidable problem ;) ... of course .... I designed it to fly in circles ..
(If you use the fully charged 'fairness' LiPo to gain height rapidly at the beginning of the flight, the battery will discharge to the point where it effectively becomes a capacitor, averaging the solar power input for a near constant prop speed) you can win if the contest is fair. in this case, brawn should beat brain.
Warning ... ideas above are NOT based on experience.
Registered Member #2431
Joined: Tue Oct 13 2009, 09:47PM
Location: Chico, CA. USA
Posts: 5639
Go with 100% solar. Then a tiny motor and prop( I think thats what you show.), like a tiny drone like a 30 gram one. Those will run off 3 volts or less.
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Solar powered balsa wood airplane
