a Promising development of unmanned aircraft — the creation of high-altitude devices working on solar energy. On the development of such devices in Russia, told the e-edition “Army standard”.
These drones get power by Sun light in the daytime and store it in batteries for flight at night. Thus, the devices do not need to set down for refueling and can stay aloft for days and weeks, overcoming great distances.
the Devices can conduct reconnaissance and surveillance to provide coverage of territories of communication, such as geostationary satellites. Unlike space vehicles, UAVs, if necessary, you can return to base and be repaired.
the Creation of unmanned “cancelitem” deals, in particular, NPO imeni S. A. Lavochkina. Created two technology demonstrator. This aircraft La-251, which has a wingspan of 15 meters and a takeoff weight of about 150 pounds. Flight speed – up to 35km/h Output working height is produced on the second day after taking off from the ground.
the Second drone La-252 almost one and a half times larger than the first and as many times easier. The wingspan is 25 meters and take — off weight- 115 lbs. It was designed to fly at altitudes of up to 25 thousand. The flight duration is limited only by the resource subsystems.
La 251 in the tests performed 32 flight. The maximum duration of stay is three days.
the New development has received a positive opinion from the Navy and videoconferencing.
According to experts, the creators of “cancelitem” will address a number of technical problems. It is the lack of efficiency of solar panels — just to 20-24% in commercially manufactured products.
the Second problem is the lack of the specific energy of the batteries. It reaches 200-250 WH/kg of used lithium-ion batteries. The prospects associated with the results of experiments with lithium dioxide-carbon and lithium-sulfur power sources.
Also, we need to make a stronger design solar drones through the use of composite materials.
